Retriever's Retribution
by RonaldWeasleyTheHero
Summary: What if Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, and Kiba decided to stick together after the failed Sasuke Retrieval Mission? Watch them as they dive headfirst into chaos and disorder leading to an adventure that will span the globe. NO YAOI!
1. Chapter 1

Rewrite of the my original story, hopefully it will be with a lot less mistakes. new chapters will be coming up soon so wait up for it. this story will be rated M, only because i wanted to write without restrictions, because boy they will be going to be through alot. i will put naruto through goddamn hell to make sure he gets stronger. because thats what he does when shit happens to him.

Disclamer: i dont own naruto

Waking Up

Drip…

Drip…

Drip…

"You failed."

Drip…

"You failed them. YOU FAILED HER!"

Naruto Uzumaki, Jinchuuriki of the kyuubi kistune, and secret son of the Yondaime Hokage woke with a start, deep ragged breaths escaped from his mouth as the memories came to him like a rapid slideshow.

Sakura….his promise. The mission, then he remembered.

"Sasuke!" he yelled frantically to no one in particular. It was then that he remembered that he really had failed. That he was unable to save the person who was like a brother to him. That he was unable to fulfill his promise to the one he claimed to love most. That hurt more than anything.

"Sasuke." he whispered sadly. Naruto took a look at his arm and saw the bandages wrapped around them. They were really thick and heavy making his arms feel like they weighed a lot more than he knew they should, but he guessed that was mostly due to his fatigue and the injuries from the fight he and Sasuke had that were still in the process of healing.

Naruto closed one eye when he felt something cool hit his face, he turned to the right to see an open window. The trees were swaying slightly as a light breeze blew through Konoha, the sun was on the edge of the sky getting ready to switch its duties with the moon giving the village a beautiful orange glow. he smiled at the sight, he loved his village more than anything, even if they didn't return the feeling. Naruto looked up at the clouds and leaned back in the slightly uncomfortable hospitable bed, ignoring the slight pain the movement cost him. He continued to at look the fluffy looking material in the sky and let his mind drift, he found himself oddly relaxed and calm. There was something magical about watching the clouds.

"Now I know why Shikamaru does it so much." He chuckled to himself. Naruto whipped his head around as he heard the doors of his room slide open. He perked up when he saw Shikamaru making his way towards him.

"Yo Shikamaru!" he said loudly, his hyperactive knuckle headed ninja persona returning full force. The lazy shinobi gave him a small wave of his hand while yawning.

"Yo Naruto, how are you feeling?"

Naruto pumped his fists "Great! Nothing can keep me down for long, dattebayo!" Shikamaru shook his head in amusement. He would never know where he got his energy from. Shikamaru took the seat closest to Naruto and sat down.

"Ne ne Shikamaru?" Naruto looked down, his tone somber. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at his behavior, something was definitely wrong if the blonde ninja was acting like this.

"Is everyone ok?" he asked, Shikamaru smiled.

"Dont worry Naruto, everyone is fine. Neji and chouji were hurt pretty badly but the Hokage managed to fix them up. Kiba only had a kunai wound near his stomach, but that was pretty easy to deal with, he should be out in a couple days. I on the other hand…" Naruto Uzumaki was never one to notice all the subtle details in life, but even he could hear the shame in Shikamaru's voice when he raised a single finger that was heavily bandaged.

"I came out with only a broken finger…troublesome." Naruto was surprised but immediately understood what he was trying to say.

"Don't worry about that Shikamaru, just because you didn't get beat up as much as everybody else doesn't mean you didn't fight just as hard!" Naruto Exclaimed, he patted the Nara heir on the back reassuringly and gave him one of his shit-eating grins.

"Besides, without you leading us and stuff we would probably be dead." Shikamaru nodded his head but didn't seem entirely convinced. Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly and put on his signature smile. The one that masked all of his pain.

"If anything, I should be the one feeling bad, everybody risked their lives to give me a chance to get to Sasuke, but I couldn't bring him back. I let all of you down. I let Sakura-Chan down." Naruto clutched at his heart, as if the emotions gave him physical pain.

There was only a comfortable silence after that, each contemplating what the other had said. A couple minutes passed before Shikamaru broke the silence.

"I'm going to go see Kiba, he'll probably complain if I visited you and not him." he got up and walked to the door.

"See ya Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted to his retreating form. Before he could walk out the door Shikamaru stopped and turned to the blonde, a determined look on his face, one that Naruto wasn't accustomed to seeing him have.

"Naruto, after your out of the hospitable meet up with me, I have to talk you about something." Naruto looked confused, why couldn't he just tell him now?

"Ill explain later, all you need to know is were going on another mission." Naruto didn't need to hear anything else after the word mission. He jumped up on the bed and pulsed his chakra out recklessly, He smirked in satisfaction when the released energy cut through his bandages easily revealing an almost completely healed body. Naruto pumped both his fists in the air, an all too familiar fire igniting in his eyes.

"Yoshaa!"

Shikamaru just shook his head "Troublesome."

END

* * *

><p>there it is. hope you enjoyed it, chapter 2 will be posted later today, and chapter 3 will be posted tommorow, and the rest will be posted one day after each other, till i catch up and submit chapter 7-9.<p> 


	2. Heart of a Shinobi Failure

like i said second chapter is up...enjoy

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto it all belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

_Retriever's Retribution_

**_Heart of a Shinobi Failure_**

485...

486...

487...

Naruto panted as sweat dripped down from his forehead and onto the grass in torrents. The day had gone by relatively quickly, after being released by a relieved and tired Tsunade, Naruto had ran off in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen to gorge himself on the noodles. Though it wasn't all great after Shikamaru had left, Sakura had walked inside.

The silence that had followed was unnerving. Naruto had sat quietly, fearfully, and nervously waiting for whatever punishment she had in store for him for not getting Sasuke back. Instead of getting a fist to the face or a verbal lashing like he had expected to, he received a tear stained smile. Sakura had told him they would get Sasuke back together. That had filled him with a vigor greater than even Shikamaru's mysterious mission. It was a promise of a lifetime after all so he wouldn't give up on it. So after eating 20 bowls of Miso ramen his next destination had been the nearest training ground which is where he was currently doing one handed vertical pushups. Naruto had taken off the jacket part of his jumpsuit leaving him in his black Uzumaki t-shirt and orange pants.

"One more!' Naruto strained his overworked muscles for another push to reach his goal.

"...500!" he yelled in triumph. Naruto relaxed his body and he fell on the ground breathing heavily. Naruto scowled at the number, he had set 500 as the goal, but only as a warm-up to bigger exercises. Naruto for the first time in long time realized how weak he was. He started to stand shakily, his aching muscles protesting the whole way through.

"Time for more training." Naruto got ready to continue his self induced torture when a voice interrupted him.

"Naruto!" Naruto recognized the voice as Shikamaru a moment later he jumped out from the thick forest surrounding the training ground.

"Yo Naruto, I've been looking for you." Shikamaru looked at him and smirked when he noticed all the sweat on Naruto's face "You've been training." he stated approvingly. Naruto scratched the back of his head smiling.

"heh heh, yeah I came here after I got out of the hospital. I've been training since then, you can never have enough training you know." Shikamaru walked over to his orange jacket, picked it up, and threw it at him. Naruto barely caught the flying piece of clothing surprised by Shikamaru's action.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Get your clothes on, we're going back to the hospital." Shikamaru said jumping onto the tree branches. Naruto groaned slightly and followed, grumbling.

"I hate hospitals, it's so lonely and boring, plus the food tastes like crap." he said as he caught up to Shikamaru, after a little while of tree hopping, they finally landed into the bustling afternoon streets of Konoha and decided to make the rest of the way on foot. Shikamaru noticed that Naruto was getting a little edgy, he raised an eyebrow and simply dismissed it as troublesome. Even though Shikamaru may not have noticed, Naruto did, the glares were even worse now. Before, Konoha's older generation treated him with a cold indifference that tore at his soul and gave birth to his constant need for attention. Now, it was downright hatred pouring from their eyes, some even looked ready to attack. He guessed that word must have gotten around about the mission, and like all problems in Konoha it was immediately put on his shoulders.

'or stomach' he thought bitterly thinking of the Kyuubi. Naruto ignored the glares as best he could all the way to the main gate of Konoha General Hospital. Thankfully, Shikamaru didn't seem to notice the hostility that was being thrown at him or some uncomfortable questions would be asked that Naruto was not comfortable answering.

Naruto found himself relieved for the first time in his short 12 years of life to enter a hospital. "We're going to go to Chouji's room to meet the other's about the mission." Shikamaru said.

"Why Chouji's room?" Naruto questioned.

"Well Chouji is the only one still not recovered enough to walk. Kiba and Neji both have wheelchairs, while you and I are fine." Naruto accepted the answer with a nod and they continued to walk. The two shinobi turned a corner and came to the reception area where a brown haired girl dressed in a standard nurse uniform was busy scraping her nails with some weird contraption. The woman gave them her attention when they both walked up the desk. The nurses beautiful face contorted into something ugly when she saw the orange wearing boy.

"What do you want?" she sneered at him. Naruto winced at her tone, Shikamaru was bound to notice now. The pineapple haired Chunin didn't seem phased by the women's tone and answered calmly.

"We're visitors, we're going in to see Akimichi Chouji." the nurse still seemed reluctant but conceded in the end letting both go inside. Naruto was glad that they kept walking in silence and Shikamaru didn't ask him anything. The two young shinobi came in front of a room labeled Chouji, Akimichi. Shikamaru grasped the handle and prepared to walk in when a commotion was heard down the hallway. They turned in time to see a disgruntled Kiba being fretted over by a pretty woman with long brown hair tied in a ponytail, she had two upside down red triangles on her face just like Kiba, the women was wearing a Chunin flak jacket that did nothing to hide her impressive bust, she wore short black ninja pants and was being followed by three identical looking Inuzuka dogs that looked more like wolves in Naruto's opinion.

"Don't strain your abdomen too much" the women said. "Your wound may have healed some, but not completely so don't hurt yourself." Kiba had a tick mark on his face.

"Nee-Chan! I said I'm fine! Leave me alone already!" he yelled. The women now identified as Kiba's sister just ruffled his hair in response. The male Inuzuka slapped his sisters hands away from his hair and scowled at her. Kiba caught them at the corner of his eye and turned around to wave at them and rolled over to where they were at. The women following close behind.

"Yo Naruto! Shikamaru! How you guys been." Kiba said with a grin.

"Were fine Kiba, we were just going in to see Chouji and talk about the mission." Shikamaru answered. While they were talking Naruto got the weird feeling of being watched, he saw the Kiba's sister was looking him up and down( Not in that way perverts), it was as if she was assessing him, Naruto was uneasy for a few moments before he finally relaxed when she looked away.

"Kiba, I'm going to go home and tell mom how you are, don't hurt yourself." she said heading for the reception area.

"I said I'm fine!" he screamed furiously as she left. Naruto laughed when Kiba started grumbling, Shikamaru rolled his eyes and muttered troublesome before sliding the door open and walking in. Naruto peeked over Shikamaru's body to see Neji and Chouji talking, Neji was on the side of Chouji's bed with his hair let loose and his forehead protector gone leaving the Caged Bird seal in full view, Naruto happily noticed that he didn't seem to mind at all. Chouji was laying on the bed looking extremely tired. The most notable difference about Chouji was his distinct lack of chubbiness. Chouji's face didn't have the usual fat around his cheeks and his body was well toned revealing the muscle that was hidden by the pounds of fat. All in all Chouji looked pretty good, Naruto would even go as far as saying he looked fan-girl worthy good.

"Hey guys how's it going?" Kiba said as he rolled over to his wheelchair buddy Neji.

"We are fine Inuzuka-san. Akimichi-san and I were just talking about our opponents that we encountered trying to retrieve Sasuke."

"San? Dude cut the crap, we just went on probably the most dangerous missions of our lives and came out of it together, you don't got to use those honorifics with us man." Kiba said, Neji looked mildly shocked but nodded.

"I apologize Kiba, sometimes I forget that I am not in the Hyuga compound."

"Great, now he's apologizing" Kiba nudged Naruto in the ribs "What happened to that fate guy at the Chunin exams he had a lot more balls."

Naruto smirked. "That guy wont be coming back, I beat him into the ground and talked some sense into him, right Neji?" Naruto asked rhetorically giving him his foxy grin, Neji rolled his pupil-less eyes at their antics.

"Idiots." he said with a smile.

Chouji ignored the bantering Genin and looked over at his best friend Shikamaru. "Did you bring any food?" Chouji asked with a begging look in his eyes. Shikamaru nodded while yawning. The shadow user pulled a storage scroll from his pocket and applied some chakra, a second later there was a poof of smoke and a fruit basket appeared in front him, Shikamaru presented the basket to Chouji and the formerly pleasantly plumped ninja practically attacked the fruit, eating it with gusto that most people only saw when a certain blonde ate ramen. Shikamaru turned to the other 3 Genin occupying the room when the noise from them suddenly increased, Shikamaru saw that Kiba was holding a limp arm and screaming at a smirking Neji to fix it while Naruto was laughing shamelessly, the lazy Nara guessed that Kiba must have ran his mouth too much and the Hyuga had to shut him up with a couple of well placed Tenketsu strikes.

"Fix it right now you bastard!" the Inuzuka screamed.

"I am sorry Kiba I lack the courage to reverse the process, or do much of anything for that matter, because as you said, my balls seemed to have been misplaced." the Hyuga said with amusement. Naruto laughed even harder when Kiba reached out for Neji with his good arm only for the long haired boy to roll out of reach. Kiba spun his wheelchair to get close to Neji and reach for him again but once again Neji rolled out of reach, the whole process playing over and over again in an amazing display of stubbornness and stupidity on Kiba's part.

"Come here bastard! Ill kill you!" Kiba was about to go for Neji again when he felt his movements suddenly come to a stop, Kiba saw that a shadow was extending from Shikamaru and attached to his wheelchair. He gave Shikamaru a glare before pointing at Neji with his one arm "we'll settle this later!" Shikamaru released his bindings. Naruto, who was laughing hysterically by this point was stopped when a piece of apple flew from Chouji's general direction and hit him on the side of his face with a wet smack. Enraged, Naruto grabbed the offending piece of fruit and threw it back at the Genin, Chouji seemed completely un-phased by it though as he continued to ravage the basket. Naruto's eye twitched at his lack of response. The blonde boy sighed and turned to Shikamaru. "So come on Shikamaru you've been holding this mission thing over our heads all this time, tell us what it is already!"

"Mission? I wasn't informed of this." Neji said

"Yeah me neither." said Chouji wiping his mouth. Shikamaru muttered troublesome before speaking.

"I only had the idea recently while I was talking to Naruto." Shikamaru nodded in his direction "I visited Kiba after that and told him about it. Visiting hours were over so I had to leave. I went straight to the Hokage to request the mission afterwards."

"So what is it already, come on tell us!" Naruto wined loudly.

"Shikamaru wait. As you can see neither me, Chouji, or Kiba are physically fit to go on any sort of mission." interrupted Neji.

"That's what I was getting to, I requested all your files as the team leader and saw that Kiba and Neji are due to be released in a week and Chouji a week and a half."

"So what does that mean?" Kiba asked scratching his head.

"It means Kiba, that the mission that Shikamaru has mentioned will not be occurring any time soon." Neji answered him. Shikamaru nodded his head at the Hyuga and continued.

"Now the mission is relatively low key, but were not taking any chances. Last time we got lazy and several variables appeared that we weren't able to deal with. So this time remember to keep focused and work together as a team." Naruto raised his hand in the air as if he was a student in school, Shikamaru sighed.

"Yes Naruto?"

"But what about our own teams, I mean we can't just up and leave them, we all have our own sensei's too, we can't just form a team cause we feel like it."

"Yeah Naruto's right even though I want to go another cool ass mission I still got to be there for Hinata and Shino. The bug brain will miss me if I'm gone, and I'm pretty sure Hinata will have a meltdown if I'm not there."

"Hinata-sama will be fine." Neji stated, his voice hard.

"Hey you got your balls back!" Neji glared at him. And Kiba wisely stayed quiet. Shikamaru interrupted them both.

"That's another thing we have to talk about, all this isn't official yet so that's why I needed all of you together."

"For what Shikamaru?" Chouji asked. The Nara took a piece a paper from his pouch and laid it down in front of them.

"This." he began "is a transfer paper. since I'm a Chunin I can lead a squad of Genin if I want to, if you sign these papers you will be drawn out of your team for a minimum of 6 months and put under me as a leader with a new team name." they all looked surprised by this. 6 months was long time to leave your squad, and more importantly your friends.

"It's your decision, but after you sign these papers you are in my team." Chouji looked at Shikamaru for a moment, then the paper, then back at Shikamaru.

"Why?" he asked.

"Why are you doing this Shikamaru, until today I never thought you would give up your laziness and take on a team of your own." all 4 Genin looked at Shikamaru waiting for the answer to the question that had been on all their minds at this point. The shadow using shinobi looked up at the white ceiling and seemed to be thinking of the right words to say.

"Don't you feel like their blaming you?" he finally said, all the Genin looked at him with confusion except for Naruto.

"You guys may not have seen it but Naruto probably did. Sasuke was the villages pride and joy, and they sent us after him, but we couldn't bring him back no matter how hard we tried. All we had to show for it were our broken bodies."

Naruto nodded solemnly.

"Now don't get me wrong, I don't feel like I have to this for their benefit." he quickly corrected himself "But what I'm trying to say is I did fail in that mission, but it also made me realize my shortcomings. it made me realize that I cant solve everything by strategy, that I need to train just as hard as everybody else." Shikamaru's voice became stronger as he spoke making him sound like a true leader. "I always wrote off training because I was confident that I could get out of any situation by being smart, so I never learned any other Jutsu's I watched the clouds all day and never trained. When I failed that mission I saw that my decisions could have gotten you all killed. "They all looked at him with a sense of respect and understanding, they all had something that they felt that they had failed on during the mission.

"In the mission I saw that even the Byakugan can be blind, outside and inside the battlefield." Neji said looking at the blonde ninja that had helped him so much.

"In the mission I had to use my family pills all the way till the last one, I never want to do that again. I want to fight and beat my enemies with my own strength." Chouji said looking at the last banana in the basket and putting it down.

"I realized in the mission that me and Akamaru could be so much stronger together, but I have to trust him and believe in him, because he's not just a dog I have to take care of, he's my partner for life!" Kiba said thinking of the puppy that was asleep and bandaged up inside his hospital room. They all looked at Naruto waiting for him to say something.

"I… I realized that some people in the world are willing to give up their most precious bonds, I also realize that you can't always rely on your trump card to get out of sticky situations" Naruto said clutching at his stomach. Shikamaru smiled and nodded.

"Even though I only realized those things now I feel like I got stronger because of it." he said. Neji nodded in agreement.

"I too feel that I have gotten stronger with all of you during that mission." the Hyuga said.

"so that's settles it then, were going to be a team!" Naruto yelled jumping up and down.

After Shikamaru settled down the troublesome blond they all proceeded to quickly sign the paper. The Nara heir put the paper back in his pouch. Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Neji left the room after a quick goodbye to Chouji. The four Genin prepared to go their separate ways. Naruto headed for Ichiraku ramen as he noticed it was almost nighttime and he wanted to eat some more bowls before they closed. Shikamaru had set a course straight for the Hokage to turn in the paper that would officially mark them as a team. only The two wheelchair occupants were left in the hallway. Kiba looked at Neji as they began to roll their ways to their rooms.

"So what do you think our team name should be?"

"I don't know." Neji replied stoically

"How about take5?" Kiba suggested

"No…"

"How about fearsome 5!"

"No…"

"How about Konoha's awesome 5!"

"No…"

"Wait! I got it! The backstreet Shinobi!"

"…No! Absolutely not!"

Neji started to pump his arms as fast as he possible could to roll away from Kiba, intent on getting as far away from the dog loving shinobi as he possibly could. Kiba waved at him with his arm high up in the air, it was then that he realized there was still a numbness coming from his right arm.

"Hey get back here! Neji get your ass back here and fix my arm! NEJI!"

* * *

><p>hope everyone liked it, going to add the other one tomorrow. i might add 3 today if people want me to, i like to pace my updates, its no fun to spoil readers and give them one chapter after the other =)<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

here is another chapter =)

Disclaimer: dont own naruto

i really hated this chapter

* * *

><p>Uzumaki Naruto was tired, no, tired couldn't even begin to describe what he was feeling right now, his legs felt as heavy as concrete, his eyes were heavy and had that same feeling you had when you were about to fall asleep. Naruto smiled at the feeling though. It was evidence, evidence of how hard he had worked, how hard all of them had worked. Naruto smiled, today had been a good day. After the talk the Genin had in Chouji's hospital room Naruto had felt a whole new sense of belonging that he had never felt before, even when he was put on team 7 there was a sense of separation that he felt with each of them. Sakura had seen nothing but Sasuke, and Sasuke had been trapped in his world filled with vengeance, and Kakashi…well Naruto knew nothing about the man. After all of them had signed the transfer papers the following days had been simply amazing for Naruto. All his life he had sought attention from people who did absolutely everything in their power to ignore him. Now he had people who welcomed his presence, the 4 Genin and 1 Chunin had met everyday and just talked about the most trivial things, then he and Shikamaru would go straight to the training ground to do some light sparing as they were the only ones able to at the time. Naruto remembered one conversation in particular that had left him with completely new thoughts to explore.<p>

Flashback

_"Hey guys!" Naruto said sliding the door to Chouji's hospital room open, he was dressed in his casual clothing with black pants that stopped midway at his calves and a white shirt with an orange Uzumaki swirl in the center. Naruto stopped when he saw the weird behavior that was going on in the room. Chouji and Kiba were laughing hysterically while a blushing Neji was glaring at a wall with his arms crossed, Shikamaru shoulders were shaking with mirth._

_"I knew it! I freaking knew it man, he does do it he's just like all the rest of us." Kiba laughed while holding his stomach. Chouji just nodded too lost in his mirth to reply verbally._

_"Only sometimes! And is it that hard to believe? Despite your previous accusations of my balls being missing, I am still male." Neji said uncharacteristically defensive. Naruto just stood there, if Neji and Kiba were going to have another argument about balls then he was going to leave._

_"Alright fine man, well lay off." Kiba said trying to calm the fuming Hyuga, Kiba's and Chouji's laughter started to subside into low chuckles before stopping all together. Not a second later a muffled 'pfft' came from both their mouths. That seemed to snap something inside Neji and with eyes blinded white with rage chased after the 2 as they scrambled out the nearby window running for their lives and laughing the whole time. Naruto sweat dropped and turned to Shikamaru._

_"What the hell just happened?"_

_"Don't ask."_

_There was a moment of silence_

_"…should we go after them" Naruto asked, a little worried that he wouldn't be seeing two of his new teammates ever again._

_"You go after them." Shikamaru said climbing on Chouji's bed._

_"I'm going to stay here and…keep watch over Chouji's bed." he said, his voice getting lower. Naruto jumped out of the window when he heard Shikamaru's snoring._

_Naruto found out that the problem…whatever it was, had fixed itself as he found Kiba and Chouji curled up in balls clutching to each other with anime tears falling down their eyes muttering things about 'beasts' and 'monsters' with a satisfied looking Neji dragging both of them back in the direction of the hospital._

_The four had made it back to the room and had proceeded to wake up a reluctant Shikamaru, Neji had unceremoniously thrown the two in a corner and sat down as if nothing had happened at all._

_"Hello Naruto, how have you been." Neji asked casually._

_" …umm fine Neji" Naruto said a little freaked out by what he did to Chouji and Kiba, his mind running through all sorts of nightmare scenarios. Thankfully Shikamaru saved him by interrupting his thoughts._

_"We were waiting for you Naruto." Shikamaru said yawning, still a little tired from his nap._

_" Yes, before Kiba." Neji sneered at the direction of the Genin who was now getting up looking fine(that's anime for ya) followed by an equally alright looking Chouji._

_"Started talking about more personal matters." Naruto was confused_

_" what kind of ma-." Naruto tried to ask but he was interrupted by Kiba_

_"Man this just goes to show you that we need girlfriends." Kiba said plopping on Chouji's bed, he gave a nod of greeting to Naruto who nodded back slightly, still irked that he was cut off._

_" No we do not need girlfriends, there is no gain in engaging in casual dating so early in our lives." Neji said his cold attitude returning, Kiba looked at him as if he was crazy._

_" Hello! Were ninja! We go out everyday and do dangerous missions, we could die anytime! Of course we need to start early!" he said, the Inuzuka turned to Naruto who was looking completely uncomfortable with the topic of the conversation._

_" Am I right Naruto? don't you have that whole Sakura thing going on, You've been chasing her since the academy man, you know that we got to start it early." Naruto knew he had to correct what Kiba had said immediately._

_" No! I didn't chase her because I thought I was going to die early, I chased her cause I loved her!" silence followed after that, Kiba had his eyes open wide and was looking at him oddly. Neji and Shikamaru had skeptical looks on their faces while Chouji just looked shocked._

_"Whoa Naruto, that's deep." Chouji finally said, but Naruto wasn't paying attention to him, as soon as Naruto had said those words he noticed how it had come out. 'loved' he had said 'loved' did he not love Sakura-Chan anymore, for the first time he found himself questioning it, and that scared him._

_"why? What is the reason that you can stand there and tell us that you honestly love her?" Neji challenged. Naruto searched desperately for something to say._

_"She's Sakura-Chan!" he said feeling like he had to defend himself and Sakura. Shikamaru gave a low chuckle._

_"I'm pretty sure we know her name Naruto, what Neji is saying is that most of us have seen you chase her, and we just want to know what you like about her so much."_

_"I…I like her hair I guess." Shikamaru sighed and looked at him._

_"troublesome… I'm pretty sure that's just a crush Naruto." Shikamaru said. Naruto found himself getting angry that they were downplaying his feeling to a simple crush._

_"Its not a crush! I would die for her!" he said his voice his voice rising slightly. Kiba put a friendly arm around him to calm him down._

_"Chill out Naruto, listen man it doesn't matter if you like her, love her, or any of that crap, all I need you to remember is that there's other girls out there man, and Sakura is hung up on Sasuke." Kiba said. Naruto's head sunk at the reminder , she was still in love with Sasuke, even though Naruto had risked his lives countless times saving her and helping her, and just trying to cheer up and put a smile on her face, she would never show him the time of day. Naruto sunk into a nearby chair feeling emotionally drained, they had forced him to confront something that had been gnawing at the back of his mind ever since he had seen Tsunade heal Sasuke, it was a cruel realization to him that he would never get that sort of reaction from her. That he could give up his arms and legs and all she would see was Sasuke. Naruto's heart sank and an aura started to surround him._

_Kiba sweat dropped when he saw the depressing aura he was giving off._

_" Guys, I think we broke Naruto." the five Genin in the room couldn't help but think the same thing._

Flashback End

Naruto stopped his train of thought when he saw the familiar run down apartment that was his home. He walked as quickly as his beaten down legs could take him and finally made it inside his small room, he managed to use the last of his energy to drag himself to his bed before dropping his full weight on it, he didn't bother to take off his smelly and sweaty clothes, he was just content to lay on something soft. Naruto turned to lay on his back and look at the ceiling. After the talk him and the other's had about Sakura, he had felt a new sense of freedom, he wasn't worrying about making her notice him or doing something to get her acknowledgement he was now just simply Naruto around her. He had been extremely proud of himself in particular when he met with her and Kakashi-sensei to tell them about his new team and he hadn't acted like a complete idiot to make her happy. Now that he thought about it, the team had taken his leaving pretty well. Kakashi had told him he was pretty busy helping the village stay on its feet after the invasion, and Sakura had told him that she was being apprenticed by the Hokage herself, Naruto had been ecstatic for her, baa-Chan was strong and if anyone could help Sakura get strong it was her. All in all Naruto was pretty happy with how his teammates had handled his news. Naruto chuckled to himself.

'couldn't say the same for everyone though'

Naruto remembered a panting Chouji and Shikamaru running into their usual hospital room and hiding under the bed, everyone had looked puzzled at their behavior until they heard the shrill voice of a furious Ino coming from the window, screaming for their blood. They had all laughed at that. Neji had it particularly bad as he had come into the room one day with various cuts coming from his body, everyone had known immediately where they were from. Kiba in all honesty probably had the best reaction from his team out of all of them, Hinata had encouraged him to do what he thought was best, and Shino with his logical mind, had simply concluded that he would indeed get stronger from teaming up with them. Naruto's need for Sleep started to get the best of him and he closed his eyes and went to bed.

Riiinng…

Riiinng…

Riiinng…

Rii-Smash!

'Great' Naruto thought to himself as he looked at the pile of rubble that use to be his toad alarm clock, now he needed a new one. Naruto jumped out of bed and experimented with his limbs by doing some quick stretches, he was thrilled to notice that his usual energy was back and that he felt no sore muscles from his extreme workout with the guys yesterday. Naruto ran into his bathroom to take a quick shower, after he was done he made himself a couple of cup ramen with some milk, he made sure to check the expiration date this time. Naruto dressed himself in his usual orange jumpsuit and ran out the door sporting a huge smile, he ignored the glares from the civilians too lost in his excitement to notice. Today was a big day for them. Chouji was finally getting out as he had to stay an extra couple of days for observation in order for baa-chan to check if the Nara medicine had any other effects. And the biggest thing about today was that Shikamaru was finally going to tell them the who, what, when, and where of the mission. Naruto hurried to the hospital and made it in record time, he raced passed the brown haired receptionist who shrieked in alarm when an orange blur blew past her. Naruto slid open the door to the familiar room and was greeted with the sight of Neji, Kiba, and Shikamaru sitting quietly on one side of the room Tsunade who was observing an uncomfortable looking Chouji. Naruto took a seat by Neji he nodded a greeting to them and they nodded back and all of them continued to watch, hoping nothing was wrong. After a few moments the busty Kage put the clipboard down and held it at her side, she addressed Chouji.

"Since the medicine doesn't seem to be having any adverse affects on your body, your free to go Chouji." Chouji gave them a thumbs up and they smiled in return. Shikamaru stood up with a bag in hand and gave it to Chouji who took it and closed the curtains around his hospital bed and started to change in his ninja clothes. Tsunade who was finishing double checking he clipboard came over to Naruto and ruffled his hair

"Hey gaki you've been keeping out of trouble." she asked, Naruto got tick mark on his head.

"Yeah Tsunade-baa-Chan, I've been keeping out of trouble." he said spitefully emphasizing the word in response to her calling him gaki. it was Tsunade's turn to get angry and she made that known by bopping him on the head.

"Watch your mouth brat! your talking to the Hokage." she said, Naruto rubbed the rapidly growing lump on his head and scowled at her.

"Fine, fine ill stop." Naruto lied to her, he would never stop calling her baa-Chan. She was 50 something years old and she looked 20, somebody needed to remind what age she was, and Naruto was all to happy to fill that position. Tsunade seemed to notice his lie and just rolled her eyes.

"Anyway I know you all are going off to train, even though as a medic I would tell you all to rest up to get all of your bodies back in to tip top shape, but I know that some of you wont listen no matter what I say." Tsunade was looking at him as she said this, and Naruto just pouted, he wasn't that bad. Tsunade walked out of the room after that statement leaving them to themselves, a moment later Chouji walked out completely dressed, his clothes had been resized to fit his much skinnier frame.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to go and start some training!" he said full of stored up energy from spending over a week in a bed.

"Wait up Chouji there's some things we need to handle first." Shikamaru said stopping Chouji from getting too hyped up. Shikamaru pulled a scroll out of his pocket.

"Guess what this is?" he asked mischievously. No one bothered to hide their excitement, Neji's lips were curled upwards slightly and Chouji was rubbing his hands in anticipation, Naruto and Kiba felt the need to express themselves verbally.

" Finally!" they yelled in unison.

Shikamaru waited patiently for the elated Genin to quiet down before speaking.

"These are the mission specs, and it says what will be doing. so far it looks like it might be a low B-ranked mission." Shikamaru said, the ninja in the room widened their eyes at the prospect a B-ranked mission as a Genin was rare.

"Give us the basic layout of the mission Shikamaru, that is the job of a squad leader." Neji said, Shikamaru nodded.

"Anyway the mission will be 2 weeks from now, but were allowed to engage the enemy only if we deem it fit." Naruto unable to help himself interrupted practically shaking.

"What kind of enemies Shikamaru? Rogue ninja! Missing Nin!"

"Bandits." Shikamaru said cutting him off, Naruto and the rest of the Genin felt themselves deflate. Bandits were fodder in the ninja world, all of them at some point had fought bandits before, Neji in his one year had fought more bandits then he could count in his multitude of C-ranked missions.

"Let me finish." Shikamaru said hastily noticing their somber mood.

"These are not your ordinary bandits, these are most likely failed academy students who became criminals later in their lives, its more of an organization then anything else."

"So what's our mission then, are we suppose to just go to wherever they are and beat the crap out of them." Kiba asked scratching his head.

"No, not exactly Kiba, the mission is to first escort this woman, Tali Yukie, to Takashi village, which is close to the border of fire country." Shikamaru said pulling out a picture of pretty women with light purple hair that fell down to her back, she had a heart shaped face and her hair had two bangs that framed her face beautifully, she was wearing intricate white and gold robes that indicated that she wasn't just a normal client. Kiba snatched the photo from Shikamaru and looked at it, 'admiring' the person in it.

"Whoa she's hot!" Kiba said staring at the beauty in front of him. Naruto, Chouji, and Neji peeked over the Inuzuka's body to look at her.

"Yeah, she's probably a princess!" Naruto said remembering the adventure he had protecting the last princess he had met. Chouji nodded agreeably.

"Indeed Kiba, she is quite the woman." Neji said nonchalantly. The Genin gave him weird looks at what he said.

"What! Am I not allowed to compliment a member of the opposite sex!" He said getting angry.

"…O-of course not man." Kiba said awkwardly, him, Naruto, and Chouji looking anywhere but his threatening eyes. Thankfully, Shikamaru's amazing talent of saving them from bad situations came into play.

"As I was saying!" he said loudly to get everyone's attention, rescuing them from Neji's wrath in the process.

"This mission is broken into two parts, first will escort the woman to her home village, then will scout the area and observe and record the activities of the bandits, if were up to it were allowed to take them out, if not then were suppose to send a message for backup to Konoha for more manpower.

"So did this girl request this mission or what?" inquired Kiba.

"Yes she requested ninja from us, she came to Konoha as a special guest for the Hokage, when she was ambushed by these bandits, luckily she had some samurai escorts with her from her home village, who managed to drive them away.

"So she asked for some shinobi help from Tsunade to take care of these bandits." Neji said

"Yes, when they attacked her she finally realized that they had become a problem, and asked Tsunade to take care of it permanently." Shikamaru snatched the picture from Kiba who was staring at it with glassy eyes and put it back in his pocket. Kiba made a noise of disappointment but said nothing.

"Ne Shikamaru why are we leaving in 2 weeks, shouldn't she leave as soon as she's ready?" Chouji asked his longtime friend.

"I asked Tsunade the same thing when she showed me the mission. Apparently she insisted that she was here for vacation and that's what she would be doing." Shikamaru said. Naruto was growing increasingly irate at the women's attitude, she sounded selfish and snobbish, only taking actions when things directly affected her. The blonde boy concluded that he was going to show her a piece of his mind if his prediction was correct.

"The last thing you need to know is that this mission will take a month to complete which I think is completely troublesome." Shikamaru finished with a sigh.

"So let me get this straight, the mission is escort, then scout, then kick some ass if we feel like it." Naruto summarized.

"Yes Naruto that is the mission, in simpler term anyways" Neji said cutting in. Naruto smiled at all of them.

"So that means 2 weeks to train like crazy and show those bandits what we got, right guys!" Naruto stood up and started to shadow box in order to shave off some of the growing excitement inside him. He gave an uppercut that barely missed Kiba.

"Hey asshole watch where your swinging those little things you call arms." Naruto pointed at him his eyes gone round and white.

"Screw you Kiba! And my arms are perfectly normal, see!" Naruto started swinging them around for emphasis knocking over a vase filled with flowers in the process. Chouji hastily went to pick up the flower, he took the single rose that was on the ground and kneeled down to grab something from under his bed, a second later another vase already filled with various amounts of flowers was pulled out by Chouji, the boy took the rose he was carrying and put it in the new vase. Naruto scratched the back of his head apologetically.

"Sorry about that Chouji." the Akimichi just dismissed his apology good naturedly.

"Don't worry about it Naruto, I got plenty." Chouji said smiling.

"Yeah tell me about it, plenty doesn't even begin to describe it" Kiba said chuckling. Naruto was confused, what was he talking about?

"Check under the bed Naruto" Neji suggested, the orange wearing ninja kneeled down and peeked under the bed and was blinded by a mix of colors. Blue, red, yellow, green you name it, it was there, assortments of flowers in several vases.

"Holy crap, are those all for you Chouji? Who sent them."

Chouji just blushed and whispered something inaudible.

"What?" Naruto asked as he strained his ears to hear what he said.

"I said I don't know, well they have their names on them, but I don't know who any of them are." Chouji said a little louder. Shikamaru was grinning at his friend.

"Some of the civilian girls saw him when he was being carried to the hospital, and they're crazy over him."

Naruto started laughing at the irony, Chouji who had been rejected by more girls then even he had, now had a fan club. It was just too funny to bare. Naruto put on a faux girl voice and rubbed up against Chouji playfully.

"Please Chouji-kun wont you go on date with me!" Kiba decided to join in as he came on the opposite side of Chouji, with his hands clasped together in an overly sweet manner.

"Oh Chouji-kun wont you let me have your babies!" he said putting on his most high pitched voice. Chouji's blush was rivaling Hinata at this point.

"I-its not like that!" Kiba and Naruto fell on the ground laughing. Neji's lips curled upwards in a barely noticeable smile, and Shikamaru just shook his head and said troublesome with a grin. After a good while of basking in the situation, Shikamaru decided to take it back to more serious topics.

"Since this is going to be the first time were all together, were finally going to get opportunities to learn new justu's that we think could helps us." Naruto who had just recovered from his laughing nodded. Him, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Neji had been going to the training ground together for the past 3 days. Him and Shikamaru had been doing it for the past week. All they had been doing were light spars with each other, Naruto had quickly found out that sparring another person was the best way to get to know their fighting style, Kiba's taijutsu had seemed to be unorganized but after a moment, he realized that his forms were straight and with his extended claws made him a deadly foe. With Shikamaru the little taijutsu he had, kept changing as he analyzed the other person's style but his weak strikes was evidence of his lack of training, Shikamaru had told him that his strength was more that of a strong civilian than a trained ninja. When Naruto had fought Neji, the Hyuga was quick to remind them why he was called Konoha's strongest Genin, he had totally decimated them and quickly pointed out what had been their most glaring weaknesses. Neji had told Kiba of his tendency to overextend his punches leaving him open, and had called Naruto a brawler. They had all accepted his criticism with an open ear as he was the most powerful taijutsu fighter out of all of them.

"So were finally going to learn some new Justus's. Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed standing up. Shikamaru stood up from the chair he was standing on and looked at all of them radiating a sense of authority that got their attention immediately.

"Since were going to be training rigorously I'm going to make a training schedule for each of us, but I need to know all of our abilities." he said, Naruto got the sudden feeling that something big was going to happen. Good or bad he couldn't say yet.

"By now I know all of your abilities from the spars and watching you fight at the Chunin exams, but somebody has been holding out on us." Shikamaru said looking at Naruto, who wanted nothing more than to run outside and bury himself under a pile of rocks and never come out.

"Naruto, when is your birthday?" Shikamaru asked

" its-its October 10th" Naruto answered him uneasily, his body was telling to run but he was frozen on the spot. By now all the Genin on the room were looking at the proceedings with curious eyes, completely clueless to what was going on in front of them.

"Naruto I know that this is hard, but I need you to tell them not me, its not my secret to tell." Shikamaru said in a soothing voice, that did nothing to help Naruto calm down. Flashes of the taunts and whispers came to his mind as he backed away from them, he felt his back hit something hard and saw that it was the door, the horrible memories kept replaying in his mind.

"Is that him? what was Sandaime-Sama thinking letting him be a ninja!"

"Demon!"

"Stay away from him dear"

His mind was filled with thoughts of rejection, would they condemn him too, would Shikamaru drop him from the team? No he wouldn't be able to bear it if that happened, for the first time he felt like he had real friends, true friends. Shikamaru put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and his gaze softened when he saw the fear in his eyes.

"Naruto there's nothing to be afraid of." Naruto looked into his friends eyes and saw nothing but friendship and respect, no malice no hatred and no fear. Naruto felt tears begin to drip from the side of his eyes,

"I-im-im the kyu-." Shikamaru cut Naruto off with a bop on his head.

"Idiot, your not the kyuubi." Shikamaru said scolding him. Then he smiled

"Your not troublesome enough to be the kyuubi."

Naruto went on to explain to the guys what really happened during the kyuubi attack and what had been sealed inside him, and just like Shikamaru there was no malice or fear from them.

"I saw the power you used during the Chunin exams to fight me Naruto, you used the kyuubi's power to defeat me, I have confidence that you are in control of the beast." Neji said giving him a pat on the back. Chouji gave him a smile.

"Your too nice Naruto, there's no way we think you're the kyuubi." he said

"Yeah, and too stupid." Kiba added wrapping an arm around his shoulder's. Naruto just stood there completely stunned, never in his life had he imagined telling someone his biggest secret and this being the outcome, that he would find acceptance. Naruto felt the tears coming back, and he didn't bother to stop them, he let them flow freely because he knew that the people in front of him wouldn't care, and most of all that they understood. Shikamaru barely managed to grab Naruto when he started to slump to the ground.

"Troublesome… he fell asleep." Shikamaru said, he put the Genin on Chouji's bed and let him dream.

Naruto opened his eyes and sat up and noticed his blurry surroundings, he noticed how dark it was and rubbed his eyes in an effort to see as clearly as possible. Naruto was able to notice 4 other figures in the room. Kiba was laying on the ground using his grey jacket as a makeshift cover and was snoring loudly. Neji was slumped on chair breathing steadily with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, Shikamaru and Chouji were both sitting on the ground with their back to the wall, and both of them were also asleep. Naruto felt so many feelings rise in him at that particular moment he couldn't even begin to describe them. The blonde ninja fell back on his bed and closed his eyes again, he just wanted this to last a little longer, Just a little longer.

* * *

><p>oh god i hated this chapter, i wanted to change it but i didnt really know how i could, i still wanted them to find out about the kyubi but...i dont know -_-, i guess this is an alright chapter, i just wasnt proud of it for some reason. anyway hope you enjoyed it more than i did writing it. and my story will never bash anyone so sakura will never get bashed, nor the sandaime( hes dead for goodness sakes leave the man alone -_-) or all the other regurlarly bashed characters. i believe bashing takes from the story.<p>

next chapter will be up tomorrow or later today=)


	4. Chapter 4

Long story short, going to the dentist sucks -_-

Disclaimer: i dont own naruto

i have a question for everybody...who the fuck is kate middleton and why i keep hearing her name? O-o

and im trying to find out who this kasie antony girl is, cuz my brother was talking about it.

oh anyways here is the story.

**Retriever's Retribution**

Jiraiya of the Sannin, Toad Sage of Konoha, respected author of the Icha-Icha series let a small satisfied smile grace his features. He hadn't felt this happy in a long time. After the sage had seen his prized student die, the one who he had put all of his hopes and dreams on, and the person he had come to think of as a son perish sealing the Kyuubi inside his only son had been too tragic to bare for his heart. The Sennin had remembered leaving for the gates that very same day with a heavy heart, unable to stay in the village that reminded him so much of his passed on disciple. Jiraiya went on to dedicate himself to his spy network, keeping the now deceased Sandaime Hokage up to date with crucial information around the Elemental nations.

He had completely wiped the child from his mind, telling himself over and over that he was living a good life in Konoha and didn't need him around, But no matter how hard he tried the boy who he had seen for no less than a day tore at his heart. Thinking of his blonde hair that looked so much like his father's, and his whisker marks that marked him as the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, gradually the guilt that had built up had finally become too much for the aged ninja. Jiraiya had made his way to Konoha.

He had avoided Naruto for a little while before it couldn't be helped any longer, and the two had met. Naruto had looked so much like his father it had taken all of his ninja training not to get himself lost in the boy's nostalgic presence.

Jiraiya had cursed himself for his stupidity over and over again unwilling to forgive himself for his mistakes. He wished he had been in the boy's life much sooner. Jiraiya stared into the hospital window sitting on a tree branch just outside of it. Naruto and his friends were sound asleep, the boy had finally met people who he could bond with. He had originally planned to take him on a 3 year training to pound the fundamentals into him after witnessing his less than satisfactory ninja abilities, which later on he found was not his fault. The fact had angered him greatly, his training had been tampered with, and unfortunately he had no one to blame but himself.

The plan to take him was a completely out of the question now, he couldn't deny the boy what had been denied to him all his life, companionship, true companionship. With one last look at the face of Naruto's sleeping form, Jiraiya leaped into the night. He chuckled to himself as he sped through Konoha's rooftops, only one thing on his mind.

'Wonder how everything's going to turn out now.'

Naruto scratched his head as he looked at the contents in front of him, this was always the hardest decision he had to make all day.

"Miso ramen or Pork ramen?" he asked himself, he was so deep in thought that his eyes had reduced to tiny slits(you know that thing he does). He was currently at his favorite ramen shop after a hard day of training with the rest of the guys, before he had left the training ground though, Shikamaru had given them all sheets of paper and some Jutsu scrolls with their respective training schedules on it, what he saw had horrified him. The list had specifically told him to limit his ramen intake to only two bowls a day. Needless to say Naruto had been less than pleased, and he had made it well known by screaming his head off to a half listening Shikamaru who's only response was to shrug here and there.

"Stupid lazy bastard." he mumbled as he once again looked over the many different ramen toppings that the shop presented. It was hard to choose when all of them happened to be his favorite.

"Damn it! Just give me one of both Ayame nee-chan!" Naruto yelled slamming his fist onto the table, the brown haired ramen waitress just nodded and smiled heading off to tell her father the order, not questioning Naruto about his strange behavior or unusually low ramen order. Naruto waited patiently for his ramen, a happy-go-lucky smile on his face. Well at least Shikamaru hadn't taken away ramen completely from him. The orange clad ninja finished his ramen quickly, eager to get home to see the cool jutsu's that Shikamaru had set for him.

Naruto unlocked his opponent door and walked inside, he practically ripped his orange jacket off his shirt in his hurry. The young blonde took the scrolls and sat down on his bed, he opened them eagerly and started to read.

The first Jutsu Bunshin-Daibakuha. This Jutsu is an A rank offensive Jutsu, it works in conjunction with the shadow clone Jutsu, it creates a clone that has the ability to cause a great explosion on command, it also…

(Line Break)

"Ahh!" Naruto launched a punch towards his opponent. Today he was sparing Neji again, and he was having amazing progress. Before, Neji was a Taijutsu powerhouse who deflected his techniques as soon as it came, and much to his chagrin, the Hyuga prodigy did it with little effort, but now? Now it was different.

Neji felt Naruto's fist whiz by his head barely missing him. The Hyuga boy back flipped away for distant, but Naruto seeing his opportunity rushed using his newly acquired speed to its fullest. Naruto reeled back his fist and unleashed it just as Neji was recovering from his flips, the fist connected hard sending him flying. Neji managed to back flip in mid air and land on the tree that would have made for a painful impact if he had not recovered in time. Neji stared at Naruto and Naruto stared back, each of them eyeing each other closely. A tense silence hung in the air as the two ninja stared each other off, looking for the slightest twitch of movement. A bird suddenly tweeted nearby and as if reacting to some unspoken signal both disappeared in a blur of speed.

The two met each other at the center of the field and crashed together in a heated Taijutsu battle. punches and kicks flew at lighting quick paces, anybody passing by would have only seen a blur of limbs. The battle ended when their two fists connected at the same time sending a chakra shockwave through the area sending small bits of debris everywhere, both of the ninja were thrown back by the force of the blows, Naruto and Neji both impacted a tree at almost the exact same time with back breaking force, the young ninja slid down the hard wood breathing heavily. Neji raised his tired head to look at Naruto. The blonde ninja in front of him had earned even more of the Hyuga boy's respect (if that was possible). Naruto had once been nothing in his eyes before the Chunin exams, now just in a couple days he had turned into one of the most formidable opponents he had ever fought.

'And that's all without the demon's chakra.'

Neji reactivated his Byakugan (they had deactivated when he hit the tree) when he saw the blonde boy struggling to get up to his feet, Neji attempted to do the same, not willing to be outdone. He gritted his teeth in pain as he stood on his aching legs. The two had been fighting for a while now, he couldn't remember how long though, all he knew is that after the fight had started Naruto had unleashed a myriad of Ninjutsu that Neji was certain the boy didn't know yesterday.

Neji should not have been surprised though. The night Shikamaru had sent each of the boys home with their recommended Jutsu scrolls and their training schedule, Naruto had come back the next day challenging each of them to a spar wanting to show off his " Awesome new Jutsu" as he had so eloquently put it. Naruto had challenged each of them one after the other( him the most for some reason) and they had watched in amazement as he unleashed chakra consuming Ninjutsu after chakra consuming Ninjutsu. one after the other on his unsuspecting sparring partners and worst of all, he showed no signs that he would have stopped anytime soon.

Naruto's improvement had been downright intimidating to all of them. They had all improved amazingly ever since the training started together with all of them including Chouji, and later Kiba's partner Akamaru who they had welcomed to the team as the sixth member (to Kiba's insistence). They had all improved leaps and bounds, Chouji had turned a good portion of his fat to muscle from his vigorous physical workouts which had worried some of his clansmen as no one from their clan had ever put so much effort into the physical aspects of ninja training. Chouji was now significantly faster than before, but still had enough girth to perform his clan jutsu's adequately

sadly though the fan girls had dwindled.

Kiba had come to the spars with new family jutsu's that he learned with Akamaru including some that he had invented. Neji scowled, No one had been happy with his 'Dynamic Marking.'

Shikamaru had proved to be the second one who had improved the most beside Naruto. The Nara boy had turned cold and calculating when he entered each fight. Neji sometimes found himself astonished at the strategies the boy used to fight, in the end though the Hyuga prodigy had soundly defeated the shadow user. He knew in the back of his mind that any prolonged fight with Shikamaru though would not end in his favor. Neji stopped his train of thought abruptly when he saw the fox like boy charge at him with a roar.

"Come on Neji! What are you doing standing there looking dazed, were in a fight here!" Naruto sped towards Neji with his fists reared back ready to do damage. The byakugan user stopped and focused, he started to spin and released a large amount of chakra at the same time.

" Hakkeshou Kaiten!" Neji screamed activating his absolute defense. Naruto unable to stop crashed into the rapidly spinning shield of chakra, forcing him back. Naruto skidded on the ground painfully getting cuts and bruises over most of his body in the process. Naruto stood up immediately and rushed Neji again with complete abandon. The Hyuga widened his eyes with surprise at Naruto's quick recovery. Neji was not a prodigy for nothing however as he dodged the reckless punch that Naruto threw at him by ducking, Neji smirked when he heard Naruto gulp, he knew what was coming. Neji gave out a battle cry as he hit Naruto in the chest with two palm thrusts each hand laced with chakra. Naruto found himself flying through the air once again crashing into the ground. Naruto had apparently run out of stamina as he didn't get up this time. Neji sighed in relief and headed towards his friend to help him when a cry rang through the training ground.

"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu!" Neji was unable to dodge when two hands came out from the ground and grabbed him by both his ankles. The Hyuga boy felt a pulling sensation then a strong sense of vertigo, after that he was in the ground with only his head visible. Neji heard a hoarse laughter coming from the trees, a moment later Naruto jumped out. He was a mess, his orange jumpsuit had large tears and holes in it revealing cuts and bruises everywhere, blood dripped from his forehead and into his eyes. But despite how he looked the blond was laughing shamelessly at the Hyuga. On the other hand Neji was reviewing the battle in his mind to see what had lead to his defeat. He was once again surprised when he saw the Naruto he had hit burst into a poof of smoke.

' but how, I remember hitting the shadow clone dead on, he couldn't have switched, I was focused on him the whole time.'

Naruto seemed to notice his confusion. The boy began to sway on his feet barely staying conscious before he could pass out Neji heard three words "Super Kage Bunshin…" then… he passed out. Neji found himself also getting tired, the fight had taken a lot out of him. The Byakugan user didn't resist and let sweet unconsciousness take over.

A few minutes later a familiar figure walked out of the surrounding forests. Shikamaru clad in his normal Chunin outfit came upon the slightly amusing sight of a roughed up Naruto laying by a Neji head. The shadow user pulled a stick from unknown origin and started to poke each of them for good measure. He smiled when a familiar grunt of ramen came from the blonde boy and just a plain grunt from the pale one. Shikamaru put away his stick and smiled.

"Troublesome."

( Line Break )

Naruto scowled as he looked at the white hospital ceiling that he had come to detest so much. He couldn't believe he was back here again, he absolutely hated hospitals, from the nauseating smell to the barf inducing mush they called food, he hated all of it. Naruto was thankful that the Kyuubi was going to heal him and he would be out of here in a few hours. Naruto smirked slyly and looked at the open window. He didn't have to wait for three whole hours did he? He laughed to himself and jumped out of the hospital still dressed in his hospital gown, he never noticed the slight breeze that went up his legs.

"Ichiraku Ramen shop here I come!" he yelled gleefully. Naruto failed to notice the horrified looks from the men and the embarrassed blushes of the women that followed him as he ran to his destination.

(Line Break)

Naruto was slurping the wonderful noodles of Ichiraku ramen while making small talk to the waitress that he had known most of his life, the girl stopped when she noticed what he was wearing.

"Umm Naruto-kun what are you wearing?" she asked. Naruto stopped eating and remembered where he had just come from, the ramen had totally made him forget. (it could do that to you)

"Oh this! I just escaped from the hospital Nee-Chan," he said.

"Naruto-kun you shouldn't do that, the doctors and nurses know what's best for you." she said scolding him lightly. Naruto pouted

"B-but nee-Chan they had no ramen!" he protested.

Ayame ruffled his hair, she loved his loyalty to the stand and he was absolutely the cutest when he pouted. She embraced him in a hug over counter getting the sudden feeling to smother him in her sisterly affection. Naruto didn't protest and enjoyed the feeling of her comfortable chest, unfortunately the moment was ruined when a customer took the seat at the farthest end of the bar. The two took immediate notice to her presence, Naruto looked at her features and got the sudden feeling that he should be remembering something. The women took gave him a quick glance before making a noise of disgust at him. Naruto just ignored her and gave Ayame a soothing look when he saw she was ready to reprimand the woman. He assumed that this was one of the more straightforward of Konoha citizens who went out of their way to outright express their hatred for him.

"Boy." the stranger addressed him, Naruto almost choked in surprise, but quickly regained his composure.

"Y-yeah?" he asked.

"Since you seem to be so fond of this place, tell me what you recommend." the woman all but demanded.

"Umm sure…well I love the Pork ramen, the Miso ramen is pretty good too. I heard girls like to diet so the Chicken ramen would be a good choice if your into that, since it's the healthiest." Naruto continued to ramble as the about ramen, not noticing the woman roll her eyes and walk out of the bar. Naruto raised his head to see the woman walking away.

"Hey where you going! You haven't had any of the ramen!" he yelled to her back, the woman didn't even give him a second glance, before long she had disappeared. Naruto scowled at the encounter that just happened. What was her problem, she had just up and left. Naruto huffed, some people could be so rude. Ayame noticing his frustration offered him a free bowl of ramen to cheer him up, Naruto politely declined, remembering his diet. The young ninja finished the bowl he had been previously devouring before heading out. As soon as he stepped out a huge wind blew through the area. Naruto felt a weird sensation down under but dismissed it. A shrill scream broke through the area and he turned to see a blushing Ayame with her mouth cupped between her hands.

"What's wrong Ayame nee-chan!" he asked in alarm. Ayame just silently pointed downwards, Naruto followed the direction of her fingers and gasped in horror. Naruto Uzumaki had finally noticed his complete lack of boxers… or any sort of underwear for that matter. The fluttery hospital gown he was wearing did nothing to hide his shame as it blew in the wind.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

( Line Break)

Naruto scowled as he looked at the hospital ceiling for the second time today, only this time he couldn't leave even if he wanted to. Naruto had returned to the hospital humiliated and embarrassed, he had been greeted with a smirking Tsunade holding his orange jumpsuit along with his boxers, daring him to escape from her hospital room again. Naruto had nodded mutely trying to salvage his remaining dignity. Now he was waiting none too patiently for Tsunade to finish looking him over so he could get the hell out here and go to Shikamaru to get another Jutsu scroll from him, as he had finished with the one he had given to him before.

Naruto had by no means mastered all the Jutsu that he had seen in the scroll, he only had a basic understanding of it, enough for him to use it in battle. He recalled that for some reason he had made the least progress with the Bunshin Daibakuha, Naruto found that unacceptable. Kage Bunshin was his first real Jutsu and to not be able to use a Jutsu that went together with it frustrated him to no end.

Tsunade finished her analysis of him and sent him on his way, Naruto rushed out of the hospital room and headed for the direction of his apartment. Naruto smiled when he remembered something. He may have been out of jutsu's to learn from the scroll but he did have a super strong sensei that was bound to know a couple good ones. With that thought in mind the hyperactive ninja headed straight for the Konoha hot springs.

( Line Break)

"No!"

"Please!"

"No!"

"Please!"

"NO!"

Jiraiya of the Sannin clamped his head in annoyance as the young ninja boy followed him on his way to the hot springs. Couldn't he see that he had to do some very important very research to do, the ladies were waiting for him!

"Shut up gaki! if you want me to teach you a Jutsu." a lecherous grin appeared on his face.

"Show me something to convince me like last time, show me something big that catches my attention, Like that little Jutsu of yours." the Sannin suggested slyly while wiping a bit of blood from his nose.

"Screw you Ero-Sennin!" Naruto said heatedly. Jiraiya scoffed

"Tch, fine if you don't want an awesome new Jutsu ill just leave then" Jiraiya replied walking away. The white haired man had honestly expected the blonde to concede to him and show him his sexy Jutsu, unable to pass up the chance to learn something else. Needless to say the Sannin was surprised to hear what came out of Naruto's mouth next.

"Well if you don't want to teach me a new Jutsu, then can I come research with you?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya was too astonished to form words, in all his years no one had ever asked him to tag along in his research.

"W-what?" he asked dumbly.

"I said. can I come research with you Ero-Sennin" Naruto repeated.

"Umm sure…I guess." Jiraiya said, the Sannin jumped into and started ninja jumping towards the hot springs with the young boy following close behind. In the corner of his eye he caught a mischievously smirking Naruto, the sight had eerily reminded him of a certain red haired kunoichi prankster that he used to know, and the thought sent shivers up his spine.

'Kami be damned, what the hell did I just agree to.'

"Hehe that's it baby come on, that's it ooh! that's nice, real nice." Jiraiya muttered with a perverted grin watching the women play around the hot springs down below completely unaware of the less than innocent eyes that were watching them. Jiraiya let out an involuntary giggle and started to write frantically, getting newfound 'inspiration' from his 'research'.

Jiraiya stopped and looked to see if his blonde haired companion was enjoying the view as much as he was. Jiraiya was startled when he saw how focused Naruto was on the women. His eyes were watching their every movement occasionally stopping to jot down his own notes on a notepad that he had given him. Jiraiya thought the kid was taking this a little too seriously, but he just shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch the women pulling out his handy binoculars to get a better view of a particularly pretty looking one. If that's how Naruto did his research then he wasn't going to stop him.

( Line Break)

Naruto was jotting down his final plans on the notebook that Jiraiya had given him, he was sitting on his bed at home about to go to bed, but not before he made sure that everything was perfect for what he was going to do tomorrow. Naruto nodded in satisfaction when he saw what was written, and put away the notes inside a nearby drawer. He laid down on the bed and smiled. If Jiraiya wanted something big, then Naruto was going to show him something so big that he would have to teach him a thousand jutsu's. tomorrow he would show Jiraiya and probably everybody in Konoha why he earned the title of number one ninja at surprising people.

( Line break )

Naruto stood on the Hokage monument overlooking Konoha, his orange jacket was unzipped down the middle making it blow in the breeze that was blowing through Konoha. It was midmorning in village, the perfect time for him to begin. The civilian children were at school and the ninja kids were at The Ninja Academy so most people that were walking about were adult ninja and civilians going about their morning routines. Naruto put his hands and started gathering chakra, more chakra than he had ever gathered before.

(Line Break)

Civilian and ninja alike went on alert when they sensed the huge chakra upsurge that went through Konoha.

Tsunade who was at a council meeting stood up ready to defend her village with her life, she immediately mobilized ANBU and left the council chambers leaving behind some terrified elders.

Kakashi at a nearby training ground deactivated the Raikiri in his hands. He was practicing his signature move to increase the amount of time he could use it when he felt the chakra. He rushed back to the Hidden Leaf assuming the worst.

Kiba scowled as he cleaned out the Inuzuka kennels today. Did dogs have to shit so damn much everyday, it was really pissing him off. Worst is that he had to be the one to clean it. The dog boy stopped his train of thought when he felt a massive gathering of chakra. He looked up in the general direction it had come from.

"What the hell?"

A bandaged Neji was sitting patiently near his uncle Hiashi watching the Hinata being overcome by her much younger sister. He sat disappointed as he observed the battle, there was not the same fire in her eyes when she had fought him, the skill and determination she had shown that day had left him impressed. It was too bad that her kind nature prevented her from striking her sister. The Hyuga boy was startled when he felt chakra ripple through Konoha.

"Neji get them to safety!" his uncle commanded, the aged clan leader then rushed outside, his byakugan activating.

"Hinata-sama! Hanabi-sama!" Neji beckoned them over and he immediately put them both behind him, ready to give up his life to protect them.

Chouji was running for his life, possibly the most destructive and bloodthirsty creature to ever walk the planet was behind him right now. Fan girls. Chouji pumped his legs as hard as he could, scared for his life. immediately Neji's guidelines to fan girls were blazing through his mind.

Rule 1: do not feed the fan girls.

Rule 2: keep a safe distance…they can smell you.

Rule 3: you must follow rule 1 and 2.

Chouji almost face faulted when he realized that didn't help him at all. Chouji began to run with renewed vigor as he saw the fan girls gain speed. How the hell were they so fast!

Chouji stopped when he saw the girls look up, he followed their gaze and saw many ninja squads jumping onto the rooftops, this put the Akamichi on high alert.

"What's going on? I better go find Shikamaru."

With that the Genin left to find his longtime friend, much to the disappointment of the girls.

Shikamaru was sitting on a hill just on the outskirts of Konoha doing his favorite activity…cloud watching the boy lost himself on the fluffy looking puffs in the sky, content to have nothing in his mind and just laze about. Then he felt it, chakra pulsed from the village and the recent Chunin sat up.

"Damn it. Why does everything have to be so troublesome."

Jiraiya of the Sannin was deep in thought, yesterday Naruto had been quiet throughout the whole time they were researching, he hated to admit that after a while he had missed the boy's loud behavior, and the silence had sort of scared him. The toad sage had shrugged it off at the time, but now it was slowly creeping back into his mind for some unknown reason. Jiraiya snapped his neck to the north, there was a massive chakra source being gathered there. Jiraiya being one of Konoha's senior ninja rushed to the scene. Jiraiya much like his apprentice had a sudden feeling that something was going to happen…something big.

Naruto felt his chakra reach the halfway point, he nodded to himself, he needed the other half for the second part of his plan. Naruto put his hands in a cross seal and yelled out his signature Jutsu. The cry echoed through the Hidden Leaf.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

All movement in Konoha stopped for a brief moment. Then it happened a giant poof of smoke seemed to engulf the village, then everything started to become orange, clones of Naruto filled the streets of Konoha, the rooftops and the alleyways, no crevice of the village was left uncoupled by one of the boy's clones. Everyone stopped to stare at the clones, the civilians in the streets were gazing half in a fear and the other in curiosity at the ridiculous amount of clones the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki had spread throughout Konoha. Everything was silent, Naruto Uzumaki had just successfully silenced an entire village populated mostly by highly trained assassins. It seemed like even the animals surrounding Konoha were frozen in astonishment at the sight of the clones. The silence was broken by Naruto's slightly scratchy and adolescent voice. He didn't know if the pervert would hear it so he said it as loud as he could.

"Ero Sennin! You wanted something big you got it!"

Everyone heard the simultaneous voice of the hundreds, no thousands of clones that now occupied Konoha loud and clear. A single thought ran through the minds of all Konoha civilians and ninja alike.

'Who the hell is Ero-Sennin?'

The original Naruto put his hands in a seal and gathered his remaining chakra for the last part of his plan.

Jiraiya arrived just in time to hear his name being called out. as soon as he heard it Jiraiya knew that whatever was going to happen was somehow, maybe, possibly his fault.

"Oh crap." the toad sage muttered.

Naruto grinned as he finished gathering chakra, he was a little surprised that no one had stopped him yet, but whatever. Naruto screamed out the name of his latest Jutsu, his thousands of clones doing the same all throughout Konoha.

"Konoha Dai Harem No Jutsu!"

The end.

* * *

><p>i originally did not want to repost this chapter, because of the second half where its mostly comedy, i just didnt feel like changing it and also it was my first try at comedy and some people said it was pretty good actually even my other story Naruto Hangover which is just a comedy people seem to like. so i kept it thinking it wasnt too bad for comedy, so thats why the next one will be kind of comedic too, the people who have read this story already knows whats coming next. lol when i heard the nae kate middleton i was like, i love kim possible!<p> 


	5. Pain and lessons go hand in hand

here is another chapter, to the people who read the first version, this one has more material( hopefully funny) and alot less mistakes(hopefully..again) i want to thank everyone who reviewed **Namikaze Naruko14, moontear1234, naturokurosaki,gaudy, Sir-Shun, lost-WOLF-KING, SoulNinjas, and . **thanks for the words of encouragement =). hope you enjoy.

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: i own nothing...do i have to keep putting that up for each chapter?its annoying!<p>

Konoha was a peaceful village. The ninja were happy, and the civilians happier. The village had a strong belief in teamwork that bonded them as a whole, together they had gotten through many obstacles through this belief, winning wars many thought impossible, even the famed 4th Hokage relied on his teammates and fellow shinobi to win the war that had gained him the title of Yellow Flash. In short, Konoha was like a well oiled machine, working together to ensure every small corner of the village was safe, all the way from Konoha's great gate to the deadly forest of death, Konoha was well observed. Along with their heightened sense and abilities with their keen shinobi minds(for most), The Village Hidden in The Leaves was not one to be easily caught by surprise, unfortunately they had one ninja amongst their ranks that was about to do just that…again.

"Konoha Dai Harem No Jutsu!" Naruto yelled.

For the second time that day Konoha was engulfed in white smoke. Many eyes widened when they heard the name of the Jutsu, a select few(Iruka) knew what was coming and a shiver ran up their spines at the memories of the knockout Jutsu, while others most likely the civilians could only guess what was going to happen, but judging by the name of the Jutsu it left only so much room for speculation. The smoke started to clear very slowly as if it was taunting them. Konoha waited with bated breath for it to disappear and were not disappointed. Finally they were met with the sight of…females?

Naked females!

Then there was chaos, screams erupted in Konoha, shrill cries of the women mixed in with the mostly happy cheers of joy from the men, it was all mixed with the suggestive purrs of the Naruto women as they cooed and rubbed up against any individual they found nearby.

Naruto smirked as he relished in the havoc that had broken out in the village, the one thing he was most proud of is that this wasn't any regular Sexy Jutsu, instead of just blonde pig tailed Naruko's there were many various kinds of women on the streets, Brunettes, Blondes, Red heads. Some of them had long hair, and some were cut short, they had all had one thing in common though, they were sufficiently gifted in the chest department(and whisker marks). it was surprising how much a little 'research' could do.

The orange wearing ninja looked on at the sheer pandemonium down below, several things caught his attention, some men were being ruthlessly pounded into the ground by their respective wife/girlfriends for daring to look at other women in their presence(no matter how impossible it was at the moment). Naruto also saw a good amount of men being blasted back by the sheer force of their own blood. But there were also people who embraced this, Naruto saw that many were not shying away from the Naruko's and some even went as far as embracing them causing some to pop in a plume of smoke.

Naruto laughed when he looked up and saw that many ninja squads were scattering, trying to get away from the sexy clones but failed miserably as they were tackled in womanly affection. Naruto started to laugh…hard. He held his sides as his amusement rose and continued to rise to an almost painful level, he fell down holding his sides feeling like they were going to split in two.

After a long while of laughing Naruto noticed the chaos was still going on, so he wiped his eyes of his tears before going to back to relish in his village wide work of art. Unfortunately for the blonde Genin it was not meant to be. Naruto had accidentally looked in the eyes of a furious Tsunade on a rooftop not very far away from where he was at. He noticed her once honey brown eyes had turned into an enraged red, her fists were shaking with barely controlled anger, and for poor Naruto it seemed like it was all directed at him.

The blonde did what any normal and sane man would do under these circumstances. He squeaked in fear before running for it. Naruto had managed all of three steps before he felt himself being snatched up by a strong pair of hands. He was about to beg for Tsunade to spare his pathetic life when he looked up only to see the face of the Toad Sage Jiraiya.

The Sennin was holding the young boy at his side as he sped through the forest on the back of the Hokage monument, he didn't know where he was going but he needed time to talk to the boy. Finally after a little while the white haired man stopped at a small clearing before throwing Naruto on the ground where he grunted in pain.

"What the hell was that for Ero-Sennin!" Naruto yelled at him. Jiraiya shut the blond ninja up with a swift fist to the head.

"Damn it Brat! That was the stupidest, coolest, dumbest, smartest, most genius, retarded idea you've ever had!" Jiraiya exclaimed, a mix of pride and extreme irritation running through his body. Naruto chuckled In response.

"Yeah…well you wanted the sexy Jutsu so you could teach me something so I gave you it, just a thousand times bigger. Now you have to teach me a thousand Jutsus Ero-Sennin!" Naruto said grinning madly. Jiraiya chuckled before stopping abruptly and once again smashing his fists upside the blonde's head.

SMASH!

"Oww! Stop hitting me!"

"Shut up brat! Why did you have to mention my name you idiot, now Tsunade is going to kill me, and I'm not talking about any old beating, I'm talking about my damn guts on the floor beating, I'm talking about war looking like paradise beating, I'm talking about getting a thousand hits to the balls rather than that beating kind of beating." the Sennin said getting louder and more terrified as images ran through his head.

"Oh come on Ero-Sennin it wont be that bad." Naruto said trying to alleviate his fear more than Jiraiya's. The Toad Summoner looked at him as if he was crazy.

"What the hell are you talking about kid, if anything its going to be a million times worse, I've never seen the Hime this angry. I'm telling you this right now Naruto I am not going through the hot springs incident again." Jiraiya said in a quiet voice, his dark and violent memories rushing back to him, he had the strong urge to curl up in the fetal position right about now.

After a moment of wallowing in the thoughts of his impending doom, Jiraiya sighed and his voice hardened.

"There is no choice kid." the Sannin pulled out a kunai and handed the weapon to a confused Naruto.

"And what am I suppose to do with this?" he asked.

"Kill me Naruto. I want you to slice my throat quickly and kill me."

"W-what?" Naruto stammered

"I said Kill me kid, this is what's called a mercy kill, spare me the pain and just kill me, you made me a happy man with that last Jutsu Naruto, I can die in peace." Jiraiya said closing his eyes. Naruto continued to look absolutely terrified.

"B-b-but Ero-sennin I cant kil-"

"Do it kid!" the sage yelled at him fiercely. Naruto closed his eyes and lunged at his sensei and swiped the kunai in his general direction, the blonde felt his hand come to a sudden stop, and opened one hesitant eye to see a horrified looking Jiraiya.

"What the hell kid! You were actually going to do it! What the hell is wrong with you!" he screamed. Naruto on the other hand was stunned and a little pissed off.

"You freaking sai-" Naruto couldn't finish his sentence however as a loud and animalistic roar came from nearby.

**RAWR!**

Both their eyes widened in fear. Tsunade had found them!

"Get behind me kid ill protect you!" Jiraiya said pushing Naruto behind his back. Naruto scowled at the Sennin still very angry from his earlier stunt.

"What the hell is wrong with you. One minute you couldn't even stand up when you were just thinking about Baa-Chan, then the next minute you want to protect me from her? What's with your mood swings, are you pregnant or something Ero-Sennin?" Naruto said angrily.

There was a beat of silence after that.

"…Kid don't make jokes like that, its creepy." Jiraiya said scolding him a little.

Naruto was about to give him a piece of his mind, but was interrupted as a loud boom was heard followed by debris spraying everywhere. Naruto and Jiraiya closed their eyes to avoid the tiny pieces of rock and grass from getting in, when they opened them they were met with the sight of a growling Tsunade.

At seeing the blonde Hokage Jiraiya grabbed Naruto's hand and put him behind his back.

"The older generation are suppose to protect and lead the next generation. That is the way of Leaf Ninja Naruto." Jiraiya said summoning all of his resolve in order to face his impending doom.

"This is no time for your corny lines damn it!" Naruto yelled while frantically trying to escape the Sennin's grip as the busty Hokage slowly approached.

"…My lines aren't corny" Jiraiya pouted, momentarily distracted by his comment.

"She's coming!" Naruto screamed. Jiraiya turned back to Tsunade ready to defend himself and his students actions. That is until he saw her face, her growling, demonic…face. As if he had suddenly learned the Hiraishin, Jiraiya was behind Naruto in a flash shivering like a puppy.

"Get her Naruto!" the Sannin said trying to sic the sun kissed blonde at his fellow Sannin like a dog.

Naruto, however, was too stunned in fear to move a single muscle even though his body was screaming at him to run. A blast of killing intent from Tsunade pushed them both to the ground making them land on their buts. They hurriedly crawled away from her trying to make some distance, and unfortunately for them their backs hit the bark of a tree, seeing no place to run the teacher and student clutched at each other desperately with anime tears running down their faces.

"JI-RAI-YA! NA-RU-TO!" she said growling demonically, her voice sounded as if it was several speaking at the same time scaring the hell out of them even more. In last ditch effort to rid themselves of the blame, Jiraiya and Naruto raised a feeble finger and pointed at each other. Tsunade just growled in response.

She lunged.

Their screams of pain were drowned out by the extremely loud noise of the still very much chaotic village below.

It was certainly an interesting day for Konoha to say the least.

* * *

><p>Naruto Uzumaki found himself silently seething as he looked at the fucking white ceiling AGAIN!. He absolutely hated the hospital yet he found himself staying in this very place so many times, it was like a second home. Naruto was trying to keep calm but the stream of ridiculous pick up lines that were assaulting his ears made it very hard to do so.<p>

He glared at Jiraiya, the old pervert was flirting with an uncomfortable nurse who had bad enough luck to be stuck with the duty of checking him over.

"So how about it sweet thing, me and you…" instead of finishing his sentence, the aged ninja proceeded to perform a few vulgar humping motions while sitting up on his bed. The nurse blushed at his display.

"Umm…no thank you Jiraiya-Sama" she replied uneasily. Jiraiya shrugged, he was use to rejection.

"Whatever, your lost." the nurse left quickly with an extremely red face, she made sure to give him a sneer on the way out which Naruto ignored. "

"Why do you have to flirt with everything that has legs?" Naruto asked the Sage.

"Why do you care?" he replied

"Because its not right! Women you want to be with should be treated with respect, even I know that Ero-Sennin."

"Very valid point Naruto, an I totally understand what you're trying to say…BUT, that rule only applies when you want 'It' from women." Jiraiya said with all the seriousness he could muster.

"…It?" Naruto asked confused.

"You know 'it'! the thing that men and women do together to be happy and stuff." Jiraiya explained.

"…You mean sex?"

"No that's the good one! The one I'm talking about is the bad one…it's that word that I don't like to say."

Naruto sweat dropped as the answer came to him. " …You mean a relationship?"

"Yeah that one!" jiraiya confirmed.

Naruto rolled his eyes at his Sensei, but the toad sage ignored this and started to lecture him "Listen Naruto you can pursue a relationship that's fine, but be prepared to get heartbroken many many times."

"Wait why! I thought that everyone had a special someone!" Naruto said. Jiraiya gave his blonde apprentice a look.

"…"

"…"

"…That's retarded! Seriously brat where the hell do your get ideas? You know what I don't want to know…"

Naruto crossed his arms and glared at him "Well you can say whatever you want about it but that's how I feel and nothing is going to change that."

Jiraiya snickered at the boy's defiant look "Ok Naruto let me explain something to you, the reason you will always have heartbreak is because you're a nice guy." he said

"But why would being nice cause heartbreak? I don't get it!" Naruto said

"Most people don't but that's the way it is," Jiraiya shook his head at the sad truth. "Why do you think girls swarmed to Sasuke and practically threw themselves at him."

"Because he wasn't a nice guy?"

Jiraiya shrugged "I was thinking more along the lines of total dick but whatever."

"Hey Sasuke is not a…total dick" Naruto defended weakly.

"It doesn't matter what he was , Sasuke had the traits that women want the most in any man no matter how horrible their personality is." Jiraiya said

"Which is?…" Naruto urged.

Jiraiya help up 4 fingers and began to countdown each time he spoke. "Money. Social Status. Power. And finally influence. Those are the things that women want and Sasuke had all of those and more. And well you Naruto not only did you not have those you were also nice, so naturally women trampled all over your feelings because they knew there was no real consequence to hurting you."

Naruto's eyes widened a little as he realized there was some truth to what the Toad Sannin was saying, his feelings were often not only ignored but downright ridiculed.

Jiraiya continued "Trust me on what I'm saying to brat, I have years of eavesdropping on conversations to back me up."

Naruto's eyes twitched. "You were spying on people?"

"Of course I was!" Jiraiya said smiling widely, as if had accomplished some great feat. "You don't get to my level of Money, social status, power, and influence by sitting around and NOT spying on people."

"Wait if you have all those things that you need to make women like you than how come you get rejected all the ti-"

"That's not the point we're getting off topic!" Jiraiya said suddenly interrupting Naruto.

Naruto snickered and before long he was laughing loudly. Jiraiya stopped and looked the blondes smiling face and shook his head in amusement and soon began laughing with him as well.

"Thanks Ero-sennin" Naruto wiped a stray tear from his eye.

"No problem kid, I like to share my infinite wisdom with naïve brats like you." jiraiya's said smiling as he laid back down on the hospital bed pulling out his notepad and starting to scribble away.

Naruto sat silently enjoying the quiet that followed, he wondered what was going on in Konoha right now, after Tsunade had beaten them to a bloody pulp, only to heal them in order to do it all over again, he found himself not being able to remember the events prior all that well except that he had pulled of the prank of a lifetime, and enjoyed it immensely. Naruto turned his attention to the only source of information available to him right now.

"Hey Ero-Sennin, the super prank I pulled was good right, did people like it?" he asked a little unsure.

"Are you kidding kid!" the Sannin exclaimed enthusiastically.

"People loved it! Well mostly people loved it. some men even started calling you Naruto-Sama." he said grinning.

**"NARUTO SAMA!"**

Naruto jumped slightly as his name was shouted through the hospital, echoing loudly throughout the building.

"What was that?" he asked startled.

"Those were the guys that got the shit beat out of them by their women!" Jiraiya answered chuckling.

"Is there anything else I should know Ero-Sennin" Naruto asked still a little shocked. Jiraiya rubbed his chin in thought.

"Well…" he began "Most of Konoha's female population hates your guts, Chouji and Kakashi are in Konoha's Mental Hospital" Naruto cut the Sannin off.

"Wait what! Why the hell are Kakashi and Chouji in the loony bin!" he shouted.

"Oh well I heard from Shikamaru who came in here while you were asleep that Chouji thought that the fan girls had found a way to multiply and broke down on the street screaming his lungs out." he replied calmly

"What about kakashi?" Naruto asked.

"I overheard from some of the nurses about what happened to him. Apparently he came back to Konoha just in time to see a bunch of naked females running around and thought my Icha Icha books were coming to life, so he turned himself in claiming his days in the ANBU had finally gotten the best of him."

Naruto sweat dropped at what he heard, he had caused quite the mess hadn't he.

"Oh yeah" Jiraiya said suddenly remembering something "Neji was here a couple hours ago. He was being kept back by Kiba and Shikamaru from coming in here to kill you."

"What? Why would Neji want to kill me, I thought even he would enjoy It at least a little bit…Guess Kiba was right." Naruto said mumbling the last part.

"No I don't think so kid, I could hear him from here, he was yelling something about you tainting his cousins or something." Jiraiya said

Naruto sighed, it seemed that he had made things a lot more what did Shikamaru call it?…troublesome? yeah troublesome.

Once again the room fell silent as Naruto just stared at the ceiling, his mind contemplating what Jiraiya had said to him, the Sannin however was scribbling frantically the small notepad that he had pulled out earlier, Naruto was pretty sure that his prank had given the old pervert enough inspiration to write a dozen more books. Honestly Naruto liked girls too and the things that the Sannin said sometimes were helpful but Jiraiya had some weird unhealthy fascination with them, he remembered that earlier today was not the first time the hermit had tried to teach him things that he would have other wised had to figure out for himself he recalled the time the hermit had insisted that he teach him about the works of art that was the female gender when Naruto revealed to him what little he knew about women. It was around the first time they met.

Flashback

_"Ok kid lesson number 12, we will start with Icha Icha Tactics book number 2 chapter 4." Jiraiya said seriously. Naruto nodded eagerly, the two were at the waterfall where Naruto first learned to water walk, the Toad Summoner had deemed this the best place to teach him about women and men because they could easily peek later on._

_"I'm going to ask you one of the most important questions known to man Naruto and I want you to answer me as best you can." Jiraiya grinned evilly before pulling out a large wooden stick from one of his many scrolls._

_"Because if you don't…" the Toad Sage let the sentence hang in the air and smacked the wooden item against his hands lightly a couple times for emphasis._

_Naruto immediately put on his concentration face while looking at the stick warily._

_"Ok ask away Ero-Sennin."_

_"What makes a man stay with a woman?"_

_Naruto put on his foxy thoughtful face and rubbed his chin._

_The answer that he was going to shout out at first seemed like the correct one but Naruto felt like there was more to it than that, Jiraiya may have been a pervert but he never fooled around with training even the most perverted kind of training like this._

_"Umm…because they're very beautiful?" he answered, it wasn't the same as the answer of "CUZ they're hawt!" that he was going to shout out before, and he hoped that phrasing it differently would score him some points._

_SMACK!_

_"Wrong answer!" Jiraiya berated looking like he was enjoying far too much._

_Naruto scowled rubbing his head, maybe this is why he couldn't freaking think straight, people hit him too much._

_Then a light bulb went off in his head, that was definitely the answer, after all he was a man in love…at least he thought he was._

_"Cause he loves her with all his heart!" Naruto said confidently 100% sure that was the right answer._

_"…"_

_"…"_

_SMACK!_

_The toad hermit roared with laughter after he had whacked Naruto. He was pounding the ground and shamelessly pointing at the blonde Genin._

_"Oh dear Kami! love he says! What an idiot!" Jiraiya scoffed at him and smacked Naruto again for good measure._

_SMACK!_

_"…Dumbass"_

_Jiraiya took a deep calming breath before speaking. "Listen kid the number one thing that makes a man truly stay with a woman is their ego, the ego is the most important thing to man in relationship, that's why we like virgins a lot more, we don't like being compa…"_

Flashback End

Naruto remembered he had stopped listening by that point, not really caring about what an ego was. Some type of fruit maybe? Anyways whatever it was Naruto had remembered being far too lost in his own agitation to remember what Jiraiya had been saying.

"What are you staring at kid?" Jiraiya asked, Naruto hadn't realized he had been staring at the wall with a disturbing amount of concentration.

"Nothing." Naruto answered simply.

"Its not nothing kid, you were staring at something." Jiraiya said, a vein popped on Naruto's head.

"I said I was staring at nothing!" Naruto said his irritation growing at the Sages insistence.

"You were staring at something kid, nothing is still something."

"FINE!" Naruto snapped his voice rising along with his anger. "I was staring at something that happened to be nothing but that nothing is still something!" there was a moment of awkward silence as the teacher and student stared at each other.

"…What?"

"Never mind" Naruto grumbled gritting his teeth. He sometimes found himself questioning the Shinobi world's decision to make this guy one of the Legendary Sannin, then again the other two weren't any better.

Naruto was about to return to his previous activities of…whatever he was just doing, when the familiar tingle of the "Something was going to happen" came and he shivered. Jiraiya seemed to have noticed to as he shivered when Naruto did. A second later the door to his roomed slammed open violently.

Naruto was greeted with the sight of a seething Sakura, the ramen loving ninja didn't need to have Shikamaru's IQ to know what was going to happen soon, so he scrambled out of his bed and lunged for the window that was his only escape route, Naruto tried to push it open but much to his dismay and horror he saw it was latched shut by a strange black device on the other side. Naruto looked closely at the window to see a small piece of paper. He picked it up to see a drawing of a Chibi Jiraiya giving him a thumbs up.

Naruto hung his head in defeat, there was no way out…he had survived Tsunade just barely and he was still healing from the ordeal, but a vicious attack by Sakura would definitely put him 6 feet under. Naruto turned to face the cherry blossom noting that she looked just like the blonde Hokage did right before she demolished him and Jiraiya. Naruto prepared himself and faced her

"I'm ready." he said to himself, Sakura launched a fist at him.

He definitely wasn't ready.

Naruto waved goodbye to the now happy and cheerful Sakura.

After she had beaten him to pulp that is.

He was now sporting several large and nasty bumps that were all over his face, he was thankful that he at least didn't suffer any brain damage, she freaking hit hard!.

Naruto turned when he heard several small clicks from the window that Jiraiya had used to forsaken him, he mustered his most venomous glare when the Sannin peeked through the window looking for any signs of danger. When he deemed it safe Jiraiya stepped in and sat back on his bed nonchalantly not bothering to pay attention to the young Genin that was trying to melt him into an unrecognizable pile of goo with his eyes. After awhile Jiraiya spoke.

"Good job kid."

"Ferrr whuuttt?" asked Naruto his voice coming out oddly muffled from the bumps swelling his face and lips. Jiraiya just grinned, a cheeky grin that made Naruto want to beat him into a coma.

"For not dying"

Naruto stared at him for a moment.

" …Phuuuckk yooo ewo-shennin!"

No Naruto! I said to pack the freaking Bento not the ramen! don't you already have a bunch of that stuff in your pack!" Naruto started to whistle innocently as he hid the ramen pack behind him when he heard Kiba's voice.

Him and the rest of the team were at the Inuzuka's house helping him handle the last of his necessities for the mission that was coming soon…like tomorrow.

Naruto heard a scoff coming from the other side of the room, he turned in time to catch a small whisper of 'baka' coming from the brooding Hyuga boy that was sitting on a chair watching their antics play out. Naruto sweat dropped, this had been happening a lot lately with Neji. He was one of the few real issues that was left unresolved after his big prank.

Chouji had come out of the mental hospital completely cured…though he did occasionally start to mutter to himself and sometimes tended to look behind his back for no apparent reason, the Genin also often asked them if they heard anything at random. everyone just chose to ignore it though.

Shikamaru and Kiba had been the easiest to deal with. Shikamaru had come back after avoiding him for awhile saying that his 'troublesome' level was too high to be around. And Kiba…well Kiba had practically kissed his feet and said that his balls were made of diamond but other than that he was treated the same by him.

For Kakashi, after he was let go from the same hospital as Chouji, he had started the strange habit of offering every single person he saw lemon cookies. Naruto for the first time was scared of Kakashi, no one just offered other people cookies…that's just not human!

Neji on the other hand was royally pissed, honestly he couldn't blame him for being mad, the prodigy had explained how he had to have the most uncomfortable conversation with his 7 year old cousin, and find out disturbing things that he had never wanted to know about Hinata. The last one Naruto had a hard time imagining that, what could be disturbing about Hinata? Sure at first he had taught her to be a dark weirdo but later on he found out she was a really nice person. It wasn't like she was using her Byakugan to follow people around and stuff and peak and spy on them in their most private moments?…no…that's ridiculous!

"Sorry Kiba, ill put the ramen back." Naruto said putting the cup noodles back into the cupboard he had found them in. he really didn't want to make Neji even angrier than he already was by acting stupid too.

"Humph!" Neji huffed.

Naruto sweat dropped again…how far was he going to take this?

Naruto went to the opposite end of Kiba's medium sized bedroom to sit down on his bed, keeping his eyes away from Neji's glare. Time passed slowly, only silence filled the room except for Kiba's increasingly annoying tune that he was humming while packing his things.

"Doo-dee-da-da-de"

A moment later Shikamaru walked in, but he seemed to read the tension in the room before promptly closing the door and leaving.

"…"

"…"

"…Shikamaru's a real swell guy isn't he?"

"Humph!"

"Doo-dee-da-da-de"

Naruto just sighed tiredly.

* * *

><p>honestly i think that ending was shit, but i couldnt think of anything so...=) oh and i did research on that casey anthoney chick, and then i realized how popular this story was and i felt like an idiot for not knowing about it. oh and to answer a review the story is rated M because i dont want to write with restrictions, if i write a situation that needs blood then there will be blood. next chapter coming soon, and women out there dont be offended by some of the things, i didnt even write most of it...my brother did because i dont know two shits about women =). next chapter coming tommorow. does anybody find the name of the Wife beater shirt hilarious?<p>

...wife beater...anyone?


	6. Change and beginnings

Ha Im back! you people probably thought i was gone...BUT IM NOT!, another chapter of Retriever's Retribution, and to anyone who has read this story before this is the chapter where i left off last time so that means that the next chapter is completely new for everyone, thats right NEW CHAPTERS! also to anyone who is interested this is a link to a new story by a new author that im enjoying immensely it is a KP fanfiction so check it out if interested, there are some amazing writers for that fanfic community, reading some of their fanfiction is actually what made me watch the show because before i was like " some show about some chick tugging some boy toy around as a bullet shield as she saves the world with her pointy breasts...no thanks!" but it was actually pretty damn good! so check it out if interested and give the author some reviews if you have time.

i forgot to add the link last time for the story i was talking about...

Author: Ikira Inugumi

Story: **Ultimate Kim Possible**

**and here is the link: .net/s/7190819/1/Ultimate_Kim_Possible**

* * *

><p>Retriever's Retribution<p>

Chapter 6: Change and Beginnings

In a grassy training ground complete with trees and a nearby lake a shout could be heard.

"Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!"

Jiraiya let out a long sigh at the display in front of him. Naruto had demanded to see him for some last minute training after coming from Kiba's house to pack up for the mission he was leaving for tomorrow. Jiraiya had immediately refused the Genin though stressing the importance of keeping your body rested and at top physical condition before a mission, he didn't want the kid dead because of fatigue. Obviously Jiraiya was not as willful of a man as he thought he was because after Naruto's blue eyed kicked puppy look that he had given him after the rejection, had been too much for the aged ninja, and now here they were. Naruto showing off his Jutsu's while Jiraiya looked on carefully at each Ninjutsu displayed to pinpoint where he needed help with, which the Sage noticed as he watched the highly dangerous and uncontrolled flame that had burst from his young apprentice's mouth was about everything.

"How was that Ero-Sennin?" Naruto's asked breathing heavily from the Jutsu, Jiraiya took note of this and frowned. That was Naruto's 12th Jutsu or so, not many ninja in the world could blow out so much element based attacks and have an ample amount of energy left, but with Naruto's chakra capacity, he should've been able to give him 20 of those without breaking a sweat. It was just a cruel reminder of how bad the blonde's chakra control really was.

"Kid come here and sit down for a minute" Jiraiya said beckoning him over, Naruto just shrugged and marched over sitting down next to him.

"What is it Ero-Sennin?" Jiraiya turned to Naruto and the blonde was immediately aware of how serious the normally aloof Sannin was.

"Ok kid listen to me. I need you to promise something. No better yet I want you to give me your word and you never go back on your word right?"

"Of course not! That's my Ninja way!" Naruto replied thumping his chest.

"Ok then…I don't want you using any of those Jutsu's you just showed me." There was a moment of stunned silence as Naruto took in what Jiraiya had just asked him, then he screamed.

"What!"

The white haired man quickly tried to calm the young Genin "listen to me Naruto. this is for your own good, those Jutsu's are not meant for you to use them in battle yet!"

"But why?" Naruto asked desperately, he had been excited about using the moves on the mission if the opportunity arose, but now his teacher had forbid it, he couldn't help the feeling of disappointment that rose in his chest along with a small amount of anger.

"I have other restrictions too." Jiraiya chuckled when Naruto gave him his most heated glare which looked more cute then threatening.

"You know that variant of the Kage-Bunshin you use? The one where you reinforce your clones with chakra to take more hits, the super Kage-Bunshin was what you called it right? Well I don't you using that anymore either Unless!" Jiraiya said loudly when he saw that Naruto was about to object

"Its an absolute emergency." the Sannin finished. The last bit of his sentence was enough for Naruto not to argue but it wasn't enough to erase the scowl on his face.

Naruto's eyes widened when he realized something. "Wait a minute! How did you know about my super Kage-Bunshin. I only showed it to the rest of the guys and fought with it against Neji once." Naruto asked suspiciously. Jiraiya shrugged

"I might've spied on you a little" he said casually.

"But I didn't even see you!" Jiraiya snorted in response

"Kid I'm Konoha's most accomplished spymaster. Ever! I could spy on anyone from the Hyuga to the Hokage herself, so don't insult me. Its not like you were going to be able to sense my presence."

"What kind of sensei spies on their students!" Naruto exclaimed.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes "Naruto that's not the point. The point is that those Jutsu's are elemental Jutsu's which already take a good amount of chakra, not to mention I can already tell that none of those attacks you used you had an affinity towards."

"Affinity?" Naruto asked confused, but the Sannin just ignored him and continued. "Combined with your horrid control, and sloppy executions all result in not only being dangerous to yourself and your ninja career but to your friends as well."

Naruto winced visibly at the last part, he hadn't ever taken account that his friends might somehow get hurt by his Jutsu's. he had already known that his Jutsu's were not very well controlled after all he was the one who had sought out the Sannin for help. But he didn't think it would've been bad enough to endanger his friends.

Jiraiya felt a little bad when he saw the pain in Naruto's eyes after the information had finally hit him, "look, its not like you'll never get to use them, its just your knowledge and ability in the fundamentals is not what it should be, and you should be increasing those instead of your Jutsu list" he soothed.

"Ok Ero-Sennin" Naruto muttered. Jiraiya stood up and wiped the grass and twigs off his pants, he offered a hand to Naruto who took it. The Sannin hoisted the young blonde to his feet and ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Come on Naruto, since I cant train you fully I'm just going to give you some pointers, so take notes" Jiraiya instructed, Naruto brightened and nodded vigorously.

"But first." Jiraiya began grinning lecherously "Lets go somewhere a little more comfortable." with that statement the student and apprentice leaped into the trees speeding towards the white haired Sennin's favorite destination.

When they arrived there Jiraiya was happy to realize that many different kinds of women were already frolicking about in the hot springs.

Wet…

Soaking…

Playing…

A bit of drool escaped his mouth, he quickly jumped in a nearby bush to hide himself with Naruto following. "Ero-Sennin we're here for you to give me advice about my ninja abilities right?" he whispered. Jiraiya muttered something distractedly before taking out his special binoculars and clearing his throat.

"Ahem! First thing I'm going to point out to you Is your Taijutsu, which has improved greatly since before, another good point is that your speed and overall physical conditioning has also improved because of your rigorous training." Jiraiya said, the Sannin took a moment to giggle to himself before continuing.

"Even though your Taijutsu has improved, I still want you doing your exercises wherever you'll be, just make sure you don't push yourself too hard." Naruto nodded, mentally cataloguing everything his sensei was telling him.

Time past by rapidly as Jiraiya continued to instruct his student, taking occasional moments to admire the women below him. The Sannin talked to him about everything he noticed and needed to work on while on the mission. His Taijutsu, his Ninjutsu. He had outright told Naruto to give up on Genjutsu because for one thing Naruto wouldn't be able to pull off a decent Genjutsu if his life depended on it and second, it was basically laughable that someone like Naruto trying to win a battle through illusions. The Sannin had taken a moment or two to laugh at the image of a struggling Naruto trying to pull of a Genjutsu. Naruto however wasn't amused, he had protested his lack of Genjutsu abilities by telling the older shinobi of his Harem Jutsu and how he had used Henge impeccably(in his opinion) against Kiba during the Chunin exams. Jiraiya had quickly crushed his argument, telling the blonde Genin that doing the Henge was ridiculously easy, and not only that, Naruto had sometimes failed at doing those.

At this point Naruto had not been a happy shinobi, as he continued to listen to the elder shinobi mentally cataloguing everything had not been enough when Jiraiya continued to list his faults and how he could improve on them. Naruto had to eventually take out a small scroll because he doubted he would remember everything. He had scowled as he wrote, sometimes ripping the paper he was writing on due to excessive force on the pencil( I don't know if the Naruto world has pencils or not…),he had been irritated to no end, and Jiraiya's constant giggles and comments of 'that's right baby' had not helped in the slightest. He had thought he was improving as a ninja, no he KNEW he was improving as a ninja but the list of things he had to work on was ridiculous, at this rate he would make Hokage by the time he was 70 years old, and he did not want to be Jiji's age by the time he took the hat. Jiraiya had finally taken time out of his precious activity to notice Naruto's less than cheerful attitude and sighed as he watched Naruto write down things while muttering curses at his name.

"Naruto, I know how you feel trust me." Jiraiya said remembering all his failures when it came to Orochimaru "If you know where to improve then you can take action and improve yourself, so don't let it get you down." Jiraiya soothed taking the scroll from Naruto rolling it up then handing it back.

"Alright I think that's enough for today." the Sannin looked to the sky noticing the moon was up and how late it was, he turned back to Naruto.

"Naruto go home and get some sleep, I want you to be ready for tomorrow, and make sure to tell me all about the mission when you come back." Jiraiya said, he ruffled Naruto's head again then took off in some random direction leaving Naruto alone.

Naruto took a look at the scroll that held all his faults and took a long deep breath, 'no one said becoming Hokage was going to be easy right?' with that thought Naruto jumped towards the direction of his apartment.

* * *

><p>Naruto heaved his back pack full of his supplies on to his back with a huge shit eating grin on his face. Today was the day of the mission, he could barely keep his excitement in check. In fact he had been smiling so much his face had started to hurt. Naruto had smiled during his morning routine consisting of brushing his teeth, and a shower. He had smiled while rechecking his supplies and rations, he just couldn't stop smiling! When he was certain he was done Naruto sped out of his apartment towards the Hokage monument making sure to lock the door on his way out.<p>

Naruto practically bulldozed his way into the mission office startling several Chunin who were working, he had expected to be the first one there but to his surprise everyone else was too ,they were dressed in their usual shinobi attire with backpacks on ready to head out. apparently he hadn't been the only one unable to quell his excitement, all of his comrades had smiles on too. After exchanging greetings they took their place in front of the Hokage side by side waiting for her to say something, all signs of amusement and friendly banter were gone as they knew that it was time to take things seriously. Tsunade put both her elbows on her desk and laced her fingers together.

"Since you all seem so excited about today, I wont make you guys wait any longer." Tsunade nodded to a nearby Chunin and the shinobi opened the door where the clients were kept.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the person who walked into the room, the long purple hair, the regal white robes, the heart shaped face, he pointed at the woman as if accusing her of something "Aaahhh its rude ramen lady! She's the same person as pretty princess in the picture lady." the woman just scowled at him and said nothing, she looked extremely irritated though.

"Naruto!" Tsunade scolded, "I am sorry Tali-san, Naruto is one of my most talented Genin, but he can be a bit impulsive at times." Tsunade said apologizing, the woman completely ignored the Hokage sparking Naruto's anger "Hey rude ramen lady didn't you hear the Hokage talking to you?"

The woman finally seemed like she was going to open her mouth and say something when a voice interrupted "Lady Yukie please don't leave our presence so readily, remember it is our duty to protect you." Naruto and the other 4 teens turned around to see two men clad in red and black samurai armor carrying sheathed swords at their waist, Naruto stared at them, they were complete opposites of each other, the first one was short and modest looking with wide brown eyes and had a good-natured smile on his face, his hair was short and a dull shade of faded black, even with the bulky samurai armor he had on him, you could tell he had a skinny frame. The man next to him however was tall he easily stood over 6ft 2 in and his mere presence made Naruto's insecurities instantly flare up just like Sasuke did.

The man had long dark raven black hair that fell to his shoulders and framed his face beautifully, he had a chiseled jaw and his frame fit perfectly into the armor emphasizing his obviously well built physic. The short one walked in front of the 5 teens and bowed his head really low

"h-hello my name is Harima Kentarou, I apologize on behalf of our princess Shinobi-dono." The samurai now known as Harima Kentarou said, for some odd reason Naruto instantly liked this guy. Harima was about to continue but the tallest samurai's deep voice cut through the air.

"Kentarou! You are an elite guard of the princess don't bow your head, it is a disgrace." Harima visibly winced at the man's tone and straightened hastily. The Sasuke-look alike approached them and examined them each carefully, his eyes going over each of them, the man's piercing stare finally stopped at Naruto's blue ones and the room became slightly tense as they stared each down ( well Naruto stared up but you know what I mean…) there was a long moment of silence, then it happened, in one swift motion the man had unsheathed his sword so fast that most people in the room couldn't follow except for a select few, the sword moved in an upwards slash, instead of the sword meeting flesh there was a clang of metal. Naruto had reached in his pouch just in time to get a kunai and defend himself from the deadly strike.

Naruto and his attacker continued to stare challengingly in each other's eyes over their respective weapons. The optical battle seemed to last forever before the man nodded slightly and pulled back sheathing his sword, Naruto however had not put his kunai back, he hadn't liked the man when he first met him, and that attack left him untrustworthy in Naruto's mind.

The man put out a hand for Naruto, who took it hesitantly

"My name is Aso Kenji." he said

"Uzumaki Naruto" the blonde replied. The man now identified as Aso Kenji left to stand beside the princess who immediately became red in the face making Naruto think that she may have caught the same disease as Hinata from her stay in Konoha. The other samurai went and did the same only to be shoved away slightly. For some odd reason Naruto felt like the scene was familiar to him. The blonde Genin didn't get to dwell on the thought due to Tsunade's commanding voice.

"Genin Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto grinned.

"Genin Inuzuka Kiba!" Kiba smiled and wiped his nose.

"Genin Akimichi Chouji!" Chouji straightened up

"Genin Hyuga Neji!" Neji smirked

"And Squad leader Chunin Nara Shikamaru!" Shikamaru nodded.

"You are to escort the client Tali Yukie to her home in Takeshi village, I expect this mission to be carried out to the best of all of your abilities, and to be completed to without fail, do you understand me!"

Tsunade smiled when she saw an inner fire light up in their eyes, she may have hated the job more then anything else, but it was for moments like these that gave her more than enough reason to continue.

"Hai Hokage-Sama!"

Break

In a maze like lair, dark walls with strange patterns on them, only illuminated by the occasionally flaming torch, heavy breathing could be heard.

"Kabuto…Kabuto! Get in here!" Orochimaru yelled, the snake like man glared when his subordinate came in.

"Hai Orochimaru-Sama, what can I do for you?" Kabuto asked.

"In the future" Orochimaru said wheezing. "It would do you well to respond to me immediately."

"Hai Orochimaru-Sama, It wont happen again." Kabuto said

"Good. How is Sasuke-kun doing? I take it he's responding to his training well kukuku." Orochimaru said, using his long tongue to lick himself briefly at the thought of entering Sasuke's body ( Lol that came out weird, but I'm not changing it -_-)

Kabuto smiled "Yes quite well, so well in fact that he's beaten several of your more violent experiments who had tried to approach him in the lair."

"Very well, is there anything from the spy network that should interest me?"

"Just a few things Orochimaru Sama. Movement from Jiraiya was expected to happen soon as he usually never stays in Konoha for long, but it seems that he is still in the village training the Kyubi Jinchuuriki." Kabuto informed.

"Kukuku it seems our old buffoon of a friend has found a new apprentice to play ninja with. anything else?" Orochimaru asked.

"Recently there has been movement from Gorou regarding the assignment you gave to him." Orochimaru looked genuinely interested now "oh you think he may have found something?"

"I don't know Orochimaru-Sama, I couldn't get anything else other than that." Kabuto responded.

Orochimaru thought for a moment before he chuckled sinisterly "If he did find something, then it would be just like that lumbering oaf to abandon any sense of discretion and resort to full front assaults."

The Third of the Sannin, wielder of the snake contract, and Konoha's most dangerous missing-nin stood up and walked towards the entrance knowing his right hand man was following. "Have someone take care of the lair for us while we're gone, also tell Sasuke-Kun to get ready, children need to go outside and play every once in a while."

"Should I tell him where were going Orochimaru-Sama" Kabuto inquired\

"Just tell him were going to pay our friend a visit, remind me again where he was stationed Kabuto?"

Kabuto smiled "Near Takeshi village."

Omake

"Happy Birthday to you!" Naruto and the rest of the Retriever's sang ( most of them anyway) and clapped as they watched Konohamaru blow out the candles on his birthday cake with the rest of the Konohamaru corps, Udon and Moegi helping him. Naruto and the squad had been training when the blonde had suddenly remembered that it was Konohamaru's birthday today, he had informed the rest of his squad and had asked them to come along stating the more the merrier. When they arrived Konohamaru hadn't minded the extra company at all, and had taken the opportunity to tell many stories of his Naruto-Nii or boss to the unwilling ears of the rest of the Retrievers. The party had gone very smoothly and before they knew it the cake was being ready to be cut while they sang the birthday tune. It would have been a very happy memory for the individuals present…if not for what happened next.

Bang!

Everyone turned when they heard the sound of the door being slammed opened with an excessive amount of force. The retriever's were met with the sight of…Ino? But it wasn't the usual dolled up Ino, the one with the spunky attitude and the ridiculous amount confidence in her looks that bordered narcissism. No, the girl in front of them was dirty and messy, and worst of all, she was angry, Really angry! Shikamaru and Chouji looked the most frightened with good reason as she most of her animosity was obviously being directed at them.

"So this is where you were!" she glared at the three kids who were shaking in fear. "You were having a party with your COOL! NEW! FRIENDS!" she spat loudly.

"Yamanaka-san it would be in your best interest to leave this minute, you do not seem to be in your right mind." Neji suggested

"Screw you Hyuga! What? Am I not good enough to hang with anymore! I'm not good enough because you guys have your COOL! NEW! FRIENDS!" she yelled pointing accusingly at everyone. Neji's eyes twitched at her words but he said nothing.

"L-listen Ino you got to calm down" Shikamaru stuttered out. The blonde female ignored him however as she swayed in, her footsteps extremely unsteady, it was only then that they realized the nearly empty bottle she had in her hand, she was drunk!

"Screw you Shikamaru!" she screamed her voice beginning to slur as more and more time passed by. She finally turned to Chouji who froze instantly "And what about you, huh! You left me too!"

"N-no I didn't" Chouji said shaking his head in denial, but she ignored him too, the blonde girl was bordering hysterical by this point, and the Konohamaru corps had taken refuge behind Naruto as the crazy female went on a rampage.

"No one cares about Ino anymore, She's all alone while you all have parties, and learn awesome Jutsu's and Ino Is left alone because you all are hanging out with your COOL! NEW! FRIENDS!" she yelled, bits of spittle hitting their faces, she gave Naruto a middle finger as she finished.

"Naruto-Nii what's wrong with her, is she possessed?" Konohamaru asked, his voice quaking in fear. Immediately Ino rounded on Konohamaru.

"What did you say to me you little Bitch!" Ino slammed the end of her bottle against the wall making a make-shift weapon out of the jagged edges. "Ill cut you!" Naruto immediately knew that she had to be stopped

"Guys stop her already" he commanded, the other teens in the room quickly spread out and tried to subdue her. Kiba rushed in from behind hoping to catch her by surprise. Unfortunately for the dog loving Genin it was not meant to be, with lightening fast speed Ino had turned around and unleashed a devastating kick to the worst possible area…right between his legs. Kiba let out an unearthly scream of sheer and utter pain immediately going down, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Every male automatically cradled their own packages when they say the one hit move.

After offering a silent prayer for his fallen friend Naruto and the rest of the still functioning Retriever's immediately rushed her together this time, hopefully avoiding to be in Kiba's situation.

It wasn't easy, the blonde girl proved to be incredibly strong, escaping from their grip several times, the drunk girl had managed to run all around the house smashing random things and cursing their names while yelling out 'COOL! NEW! FRIENDS!'

After a long and harshly fought battle that left them all injured and breathing heavily, Shikamaru had finally managed to catch her in a Shadow bind and Chouji had taken the opportunity to knock her out.

Now the 5 friends and teammates sat on the front door of the Sarutobi compound watching the retreating form of Inoichi Yamanaka taking his daughter home in his arms. Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Neji had so many bruises and lumps on their faces that they were almost unrecognizable, while Kiba laid beside them unconscious with drool escaping from his mouth and twitching sporadically.

"Guys" Naruto said as the wind blew, there was a shocked silence between them

"What just happened?"

* * *

><p>i already have chapter 7-9 written and by this time they are in the village, now im going to warn everyone right now, when they get to takeshi village they will be going through alot of things and jumpstart their journey for several reasons that i will reveal in time. next chapter will be put up as soon as i feel like it, oh and tell me if anyone would be interested in listening to my podcast. yeah thats right im going to make a podcast =). oh and also Naruto: hangover will probably uploaded soon if people are still interested, i like writing that story because i can do practically anything i want.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

**I know i will probably get crap for this, but in this chapter i tried to show how Naruto is a boy in that in this age can have lots of insecurities, especially with what he went through and i hope i succeeded in that.**

Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 7<span>

Naruto was practically skipping as he followed the carriage holding the princess, nothing could keep his excitement down now that the mission was underway. Him and the rest of the guys had been waiting for what seemed like forever for the chance to redeem themselves since the failed Sasuke retrieval mission that gave them the resolve to better themselves as ninja, and now that it was actually happening his happiness about the situation blinded him to everything, even the fact that he couldn't use most of his techniques. Or the fact that the princess herself was royal pain in the ass!

Without even realizing it Naruto began to hum.

Shikamaru clutched the bridge of his nose in frustration as he noticed Naruto's mood, he wouldn't lie to himself and say that he wasn't excited, but it was not the time and place to be acting so carefree, they WERE on a mission after all. Fortunately Naruto was the only source of his frustration, Kiba was focusing somewhat and keeping his smell senses heightened in order to sniff out any possible hostiles, but he was sporting a red mark on the side of his cheek after a crude remark he had made about the princess. much to the rest of his comrades amusement.

Neji was showing his experience with missions like this evident by his vigilant look and the veins on his eyes signaling his activation of the Byakugan. And Chouji's eyes were hard and filled with concentration even though the Nara knew that his best friend was going through hell because of the diet that the had put him on during their harsh training period.

Shikamaru stopped his thoughts and turned his attention to the still humming Naruto. "Naruto! Stop messing around and focus, you want to die because you were singing?"

The blonde boy snapped to attention and scratched his head sheepishly and gave him a nod of understanding, Shikamaru allowed a small smile to grace his features, he would be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy the authority and respect that his team showed him most of the time.

"It would be wise to listen to your commander Uzumaki-san, even if you may not consider your life important, the life of our princess certainly is. Your lack of awareness could result in her death." the samurai said, Shikamaru had almost forgotten about the two samurai that was accompanying them, the one who had spoken to Naruto had a hint of mocking in his voice, while the other much shorter one looked nervous and threw Naruto an apologetic look. Shikamaru saw Naruto growl at the taller one who, if he remembered correctly, was named Kenji.

"Naruto." Shikamaru yelled to the blonde boy. The Nara didn't need to say anything as they spoke only through eye contact, Naruto took a deep breath and attempted to calm down.

With that Shikamaru turned his attention back on the road, his mind running a mile a minute about the mission they were on.

After that the journey was filled with silence as they walked, nevertheless they kept a good eye on their surroundings and their muscles tense and ready for an attack at any moment. It continued that way until the sun started to set and the sky was filled with the orange and slightly pink light that lit up the sky when it was almost dark.

"We will set up camp here." Kenji said as he led the carriage into a spot inside the forest, his much smaller comrade following behind him and starting a fire.

"You 5 will rotate watches periodically in order for each of you to get sufficient rest, decide the times for each lookout amongst yourselves" The samurai ordered.

"ok." Shikamaru replied calmly trying to not to let some of his irritation seep through, he didn't need this man telling him and his team what to do.

He turned to the rest of the guys "I will take the first lookout when its time to get some sleep, first we need to get something in our stomachs." Shikamaru said smiling, taking notice of how Chouji let out a sigh of relief.

"Yay ramen!" Naruto said loudly and dug into his backpack bringing out all types of instant ramen, Naruto grinned broadly and started to rub his face affectionately against a pack of Miso ramen " oh! I am going to eat you tonight! Yes I am. Yes I am!"

"Naruto that cant be all that you brought with you to eat is it?" Neji asked curiously.

"What if it is!" Naruto said defensively clutching the ramen and putting it up to his chest as if Neji was going to snatch it away and burn it.

"Let the man eat what he wants, I'm not going to eat any more freaking rations that's for sure, screw that!" Kiba piped up taking a spot near the fire that the smaller samurai had made them. The dog boy took out several hamburgers and tossed one to Neji.

"Here eat this, I'm sure even people like you have taste." Kiba laughed at the glare that Neji sent him.

"I'm going to ignore that Kiba, I hardly see the point in arguing with you at the moment." Neji huffed and unwrapped the burger taking a savage bite out of it and chewing with an arrogant smirk on his face.

"Fine. You don't have to be a dick about it." Kiba muttered also taking a savage bite out of it, they both began to chew loudly as if an unspoken contest had started.

Naruto stared back and forth between the two and then shrugged and got up heading to the nearby river to get some water for his ramen.

Shikamaru smiled as he saw his blonde friend skip off towards the nearest water source " I don't see how anyone can get so excited about ramen" he took out a couple of his ration bars and bit into it grimacing a little at the blandness of it. Kiba noticed it and took out another burger and threw it to the shadow user who even though did not show it, was immensely grateful that he didn't have to continue eating what he was before.

"Much appreciated Kiba" Shikamaru said as he chewed, Kiba nodded " no problem man."

Two small barks came from the inuzuka's side and he ripped a small piece of his meal and handed it to his partner "Here you go boy!" Akamaru took the small piece and began to eat.

Shikamaru stopped and looked over to his best friend and saw him looking jealously and hungrily at them, Shikamaru looked over to Kiba and nodded his head in the direction of the Akimichi "Here you go Chouji." the brown haired boy snatched the burger out of the air and unwrapped it then ate it like a man possessed.

This is how Naruto found them when he came back 4 boys and 1 dog happily feasting on hamburgers,

Suddenly ramen didn't seem so good.

Naruto found himself wanting a hamburger.

BREAK

Shikamaru yawned as he watched the moon traverse slowly across the night sky from his position on a tall tree. So far everything had been great even though there were a few minor issues, like the princess being silent throughout the entire trip and only talking briefly to the big and tall samurai named Kenji. The Nara teen turned his head a little to gaze over at the subject of his thoughts, the carriage that the princess was riding on was positioned a little away from their camping site, with the princess's two bodyguards sleeping on either side of the carriage. He wondered what was wrong with the woman, he had never met a girl who was so perpetually moody besides Ino and his mother. A small sound was heard behind him and Shikamaru turned around rapidly while bringing out a kunai, he cursed himself for his momentary lapse in concentration. Much to his relief it was not a threat for Shikamaru was greeted with the sight of the orange loving shinobi waving his hands frantically to try and calm him down.

"Whoa whoa Shikamaru its me, Naruto!" he said whispering loudly.

Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief but then narrowed his eyes at the blonde "What are you doing here Naruto you need to rest up for tomorrow."

Naruto looked down and scratched his head "W-well I couldn't sleep, I'm just sort of fidgety you know?

Shikamaru smirked "Trust me, I noticed"

"So you mind if I stay here with you?" Naruto asked

Shikamaru thought about it for a moment, he really thought it was best that Naruto at least try and get some sleep for tomorrow but its not like he could force the blonde to get some rest if he honestly couldn't.

"Alright, I guess I could use the company."

Naruto smiled and sat beside him on the branch and said nothing letting silence fall between them. Shikamaru watched Naruto out of the corner of his eye wondering why he was being so unusually quiet, he had expected Naruto to bombard him with an onslaught of questions along with some stupid jokes. But as he looked at the blonde Shikamaru doubted that was going to happen, Naruto had a look on his face, he realized it was the same look he had on his face when he walked into the hospital and saw him staring out Konoha.

"Hey Shikamaru." Naruto said suddenly, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"Do you miss them?" Naruto asked.

"Miss who?" he questioned, genuinely confused.

"Them, your teammates I mean."

Shikamaru was a little taken back b the question, but answered all the same

"I would be lying if I said I didn't, even though I still have Chouji, its still not the same without Ino around, no matter how troublesome she was, she was still a big part of my life."

Naruto nodded and the Nara boy continued.

"But they are still there, I still play Shogi with Asuma-Sensei a lot, and I still visit Ino at the flower shop when I get the chance." he chuckled "Well only after she forgave me and stopped wanting to rip my intestines out."

"Anyway what I'm trying to say is that even though I transferred teams, the time I spent with them made them very important people to me, I'm not going to stop caring about them or stop being there friend. The others feel the same way." Shikamaru said, he had noticed how sometimes Kiba would talk about team 8 when he told them stories of some of their missions, there was always something in the inuzuka's eyes that made Shikamaru feel somewhat guilty for taking them away from their teammates.

"Why did you ask me that anyways, is there something wrong Naruto?"

Naruto turned to him, and Shikamaru could see through that eye contact that he was hurting about something "Its just that, I feel like I'm abandoning Sakura-Chan, she puts on a brave face for me when I'm around sometimes but I can tell how bad she feels, its like Sasuke broke her when he left, I just want her to be happy Shikamaru. Damn it, I even promised her! Promised her! And I still screwed up, no matter how many times I tell myself that it wasn't my fault Sasuke left I still feel responsible, a-and I think sometimes she might feel the same way too." Naruto smashed his fist against the tree and growled.

"Naruto." Shikamaru began calmly "You know it wasn't your fault right, you were in no way directly responsible for Sasuke leaving, that was his choice and his alone. And besides even though I don't know Sakura as well as you do, I doubt she would blame you, she knows that you tried your hardest.

"That's exactly it! She may think I tried my hardest, but I don't feel like I tried My hardest."

"What? What are you talking about Naruto" Shikamaru asked disbelievingly, out of all the things he thought Naruto was worrying about, that was not one of them. Naruto was known for putting 110% into practically everything he did, he didn't think Naruto knew how to not work hard, or how to give up.

Naruto clutched both of his fists tightly "I always thought that fighting for yourself, fighting for a dream would make you strong that's why I aimed to be Hokage, but a certain someone taught me differently. Its alright to fight for yourself and you will get strong, but you will always be stronger when you fight to protect, when you fight for others."

Naruto paused and Shikamaru said nothing as he waited for him to gather himself.

"When we set out I thought we couldn't lose, I thought that _I_ couldn't lose because I was fighting for Sakura-Chan, but when I got there and when I saw him, those things slipped to the back of my mind and all I saw was my rival, my goal, I wanted to bring him back for Sakura-Chan but at the same time I wanted to beat him into the ground for myself. I saw an opportunity to go all out without any restrictions and see how much stronger I was or even if I was finally stronger than him. I wanted to drag him back and dump his body in front of Konoha's gates and make everyone realize that I was the one who did that, that I was the one who beat the last Uchiha, that their genius was surpassed by the dropout."

Naruto put both of his hands in his hair and let out a deep breath.

"I feel like an idiot, I know everything is done and that's that, but I cant help how I feel and think what if I had fought for the sole purpose of bringing him back and not because I wanted to beat him maybe I would've won and kept my promise.

Shikamaru was stunned by what Naruto revealed to him, he had never thought his feeling about the mission went this deep.

"Naruto…I" Shikamaru started, unsure of what to say. Luckily Naruto put a hand up and stopped him in his tracks

"You don't have to say anything Shikamaru, I-i think I just needed to tell somebody I guess." Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed a little "Just don't tell Kiba, he would never let me hear the end of it."

Shikamaru smiled "My lips are sealed."

"Thanks..."

A comfortable silence fell between them as they turned their attention back to the moon watching as it makes its slow journey across the night sky and bathing them in its light, their thought were clear and their minds were free.

* * *

><p>i hope i managed to do something right in this chapter oh and there are probably a lot of mistakes because i made i made my little sister proofread it cause i was too lazy to do it myself =), well i would probably do a worse job than her anyways =). hopefully i succeeded with giving some of the boys more depth, that it wasn't easy for them to just up and leave their squad and teammates, and i especially don't want them to start focusing on their small group alone and forget about their other teammates, so i will try to incorporate some of the other characters in the story.<p>

if this chapter is received well, then i wont delay the other ones any longer.


	8. Chapter 8

**1 month later...i updated, In all honesty i was going to abandon this story because of the hate mail i got weeks ago, thats why didnt update, i mean ive been reading fanfiction for a while, and i never submitted one of my own because i didnt think i could write very well and i knew i didnt deal with criticism very well. a couple weeks ago i got flamed for my story, its was like 2000 words of pure bashing my storym things like**

**" your naruto sucks"**

**" he's weak."**

**" You dont know how to write"**

**that shet hurts, it doesnt feel good for someone to say all these things about something i put alot of time and effort in, everytime i tried to write the mail ckept creeping into my head and i would not be able to write. seriously it was like 2000 words of pure hate for me. i mean that freaking sucks-_-. but you know what i did, decided to do some research and improve myself, i did research on sakura for the past few days and hopefully i kinda sorta nailed her in this chapter. i ended up scrapping 3 chapters of my stuff because of that hate mail. but it kinda helped since it gave me the drive to better myself...but the guy can go fuck himself =). and he also wrote alot about all the "gay feelings they have. ummm im sorry but are characters not suppose to have feelings? arent they human? that is why readers hate Mary sues and self inserts cuz they are perfect. at the end of the day Naruto is a human being who has flaws, and sometimes those flaws are what makes the story.**

**Not bashing**

**Not harems**

**Not any fucking cliche's**

**so im kind of glad he wrote that hate mail, because my fic is hopefully to some people a nice change to the ones that are out there, because naruto fics are starting to look more and more alike nowadays...oh and by the way i didnt even realize it but Sir-Shun you are like my god, i love ur story i didnt even notice you reviewed, or i didnt notice ur name but seriously i have lots of respect for you and your story shadow and wind, an amazing story that i hooked as soon as i read it, dude you rock!. sorry if i sound like a fan boy. and Wilkos ( is that how its spelled?) i love ur reviews always detailed, always long and always constructive your reviews are very much appreciated.**

oh wow monster A/N, you dont have to read, though by the time you read this it will be too late =)

Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: All the Pieces<p>

"Come on, Sakura! You need to be faster, work those legs!" Tsunade the Fifth Hokage of Konoha shouted picking up another large boulder and hurling it at her student.

Sakura Haruno widened her eyes in fright, barely dodging another boulder that smashed into pieces where she had previously been. The pink haired girl rolled and managed to stand before another one was thrown at her. She leaped to the side as the large rock whizzed past her and broke into a million pieces as it came in contact with a tree.

"Tsunade-Shishou I c-cant.." she wheezed, coughed, and pleaded to her teacher. The exercise was becoming far too much for her, and she knew that any longer her strength would give out on her and one of the deadly projectiles would hit its target which would guarantee certain death. Unfortunately for Sakura all she got was another boulder being thrown at her at a ridiculous speed.

"You have to dodge, Sakura!" Tsunade urged harshly "What happens when you get hurt? it could mean the end of your teammates and the mission. Learning to dodge and avoiding getting hurt is one of the most important things for a Medic!" Tsunade threw another boulder.

Sakura screeched and with aching legs dove yet again for safety. she felt her hair ruffle from the strong wind of the fast moving boulder as it past a few inches over her form.

"That's pathetic Sakura, Don't dodge only to leave yourself open afterwards" She heard her mentor scream.

Sakura's eyes snapped open knowing what that meant, and as she predicted the familiar rock came flying at her, the rosette tried to stand only for her legs to stiffen and shut down when she was on her knees. terror flashed across her emerald eyes as she stared at the projectile that now spelled certain doom for her. Sakura Haruno closed her eyes, wet salty tears now flowing freely down her face. Time seemed to slow down as thoughts rapidly moved across her mind.

An image of a scowling Sasuke staring at her, a hint of disgust on his face "Your weaker than Naruto…"

An image of Naruto, the one she always thought as a weakling and a pushover bravely holding off a giant snake with only two kunais, he looked up and smiled at Sasuke "Are you afraid, scaredy cat?"

An image of Lee standing bravely without hesitation as hr he faced three opponents she could not even hoped to have defeated herself, he smiled toothily at her "I will protect you Sakura-San."

Sasuke, as he continued to get up and fight against Yoroi even though he was worn out and the mark he had gotten from the Sound Nin was still clearly affecting him.

Lee, as he stood up his eyes dead and his arm bloody, his entire body shaking from pain and fatigue yet unwilling to admit defeat, unwilling to give up his dream…unwilling to dream of giving up at all.

And Naruto, raising his fists towards a genius of the Hyuga clan, a prodigy, a fighter that was above him in almost every aspect, but yet with absolute certainty he declared victory for himself. No matter what the odds he would not give up, he would find a way to win, and if there wasn't…he would find one!

Just like that time moved normally again, Sakura snapped her eyes open except this time her tears were gone and her look of terror and hopelessness was replaced with white hot rage and determination.

"Shannaro!" With a resounding battle cry she pulled back her small fist and smashed it full force against the boulder.

The result was tremendous.

A loud boom echoed throughout the training ground and the boulder exploded with the force of the punch, pieces of it flying in all sorts of directions. Tsunade had to cover her eyes due to the shockwave that blew debris and dust across the Area from the impact.

There was silence after that, the only sound being heard was the small thump of Sakura's body collapsing to the ground, she smiled a full blown Naruto-like smile as her muscles relaxed, the adrenaline from the highly dangerous situation rapidly fading away and being replaced with euphoria at her performance. Sakura looked up as a shadow loomed her over her. Sakura smiled as she saw the fifth Hokage looking down at her.

Tsunade was looking at her student with a blank expression unwilling her face to show any sort of emotion and let the pink haired kunoichi know how impressed she was.

Sakura coughed slightly and spoke "Did I do g-good S-shishou?" She asked.

Tsunade continued to stare at Sakura, her familiar red dress was ripped in several places, and she was showing a lot of scrapes and bruises from all the dodging and tumbling around.

"S-shishou?" Sakura asked again when she received no response.

Tsunade rewarded her with a tiny smirk "Well this is a dodging exercise…but I guess that works too."

Sakura's smile grew larger at the small praise.

"Now get up, we are going in for round two and this time your hands are being tied up."

"Sh-shishou shouldn't we take a break?"

Tsunade smiled "That was your break."

With that, Sakura's jaw dropped.

* * *

><p>Sakura walked sluggishly though the busy afternoon streets of Konoha, her body sore and her muscles aching, she and Tsunade had gone through several more exercises after her impressive display of destroying one of the boulders, Tsunade had continued to push her and Sakura was pretty sure she had gone far beyond her limits today. The worst thing was the pinkette knew that this was only the beginning.<p>

Sakura continued to walk, her destination unknown. Nowadays most things she did, she did alone. She still had a hard time coping with the change. Team 7 had all but collapsed in such a short period of time. a large part of her felt cheated. In her eyes the team was finally bonding, the Chunin exams had brought them closer together, she finally felt like she was a part of something. She had been discovering Naruto and Sasuke in whole new ways (kakashi not so much) but snap!…just like that…

They were gone.

Sasuke had left her with a broken heart.

Kakashi had left her feeling unworthy of his attention.

Naruto had left with her unbearable loneliness.

She cursed the world for its unfairness.

Sakura tried not to think about the days ahead, they didn't seem to hold much promise right now, she imagined how it would be would like without them…without anyone.

Her heart sank at the thought.

The pink haired Kunoichi stopped suddenly and turned to go another direction, with the way her thoughts were going she didn't want to be alone right now, so Sakura headed for the direction of the one person who knew her pain better than anyone.

* * *

><p>Sakura smiled a little as she neared the Yamanaka flower shop in search of Ino. Her and the platinum blonde haired girl had been talking a lot as of late trying to repair their previously broken friendship, but also it was due to the fact that both their teams had broken quite unexpectedly leaving them both with lazy sensei's and nothing but each other to turn to. They had talked about lots of topics, ranging from make-up to food, and like any other best girl friends trying to repair a broken friendship due to a boy, they avoided the topic of the said boy all together. But one topic always creped back up<p>

'Them'

As Ino liked to say, was the team that their teammates had formed once they had left their original squads. And without a doubt Ino held a bitter hatred for them that she did not hesitate to voice out loud. ever since they had left for their Mission about 2 days ago, Ino had started to get particularly vocal about it, even one time coming over to her house and ranting for close to 3 hours about the hell she was going to put Chouji and Shikamaru through once they got back.

Sakura heard the familiar bell of door ring as she walked inside the Yamanaka Flower shop, she spotted Ino by the cash register, her head was in her hands as she stared at nothing in particular, she looked utterly bored, but Sakura knew that there was much more than boredom beneath those orbs.

Sadness.

Loneliness

Frustration.

Hurt.

All the things she was experiencing on a daily basis were mirrored in Ino's eyes. The platinum blonde girl finally seemed to notice her presence and waved her over.

"Hey forehead…" Ino greeted, her voice showing none of her usual enthusiasm.

"Hey Ino…" she greeted back.

An awkward silence fell over them after that, neither one having much of anything to say to the other.

"So how have you been?" Sakura asked, she resisted the urge to smack herself for asking such a dumb question.

"Fine." Ino answered dully

"Oh…ok."

Once again, silence fell between them.

"So…" she began, desperately looking for any sort of conversation starter, usually this was much easier considering who she was talking to. Ino and her were both talkers, hell they could talk for all of Konoha. However, things remained quiet, that is until Ino spoke.

What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I-w wanted to talk."

"Well I don't, not right now!' she spat.

"Why not…?"

"Because I'm tired of them! I'm tired of feeling this way just because they left, I'm tired of feeling weak and helpless just because they are gone, like I cant take care of myself." the blonde huffed and crossed her arms.

Sakura didn't know what to say to her outburst, in all honesty she felt the same way, the constant chaos of emotions that warred within her everyday since she started getting by on her own was taking a toll on her.

"Me too.." she sighed

"I hate them!" she continued harshly "They just leave us and act like were nothing, they just dumped us like yesterday's trash, and the worse thing is their stupid excuse for it."

Sakura scowled, she remembered what Naruto had said to her that he "Felt like he could get stronger with them."

"Its not like we couldn't get stronger as team 10!" Ino shouted, the anger evident in her loud voice.

"Or team 7." Sakura added, feeling her anger rise within her. "What if we just left them and made a team of our own, how would they like it!" Sakura started to rant angrily, letting out a massive amount of built up frustration inside her that she didn't know she was keeping in. in her anger she failed to see Ino's eyes widen with realization and her mouth curve into a mischievous smile.

Ino suddenly snapped off her work apron and made her way to Sakura's side of the register, Ino grabbed the still shouting Sakura's hand roughly and began to walk out.

"Mom I'm going out to run some errands, be back in a bit!" she screamed over her shoulder, the Kunoichi did not even wait for a response before she headed out the door.

* * *

><p>Sakura was getting irritated as Ino practically dragged her through Konoha's streets heading off for some unknown location that she hadn't been made aware of yet.<p>

"Ino where are we going?" she asked.

"To the market, she goes by there sometimes." Ino replied.

"Market?…and who is 'she'?" Sakura asked confused

Ino did not answer her question and instead chose to come to a sudden halt causing the pink haired girl to smack straight into her back.

"Oww watch it!" she snapped. Ino ignored her complaints and pointed towards a nearby weapons shop.

"There she is"

Sakura watched as a bun haired girl dressed in a black Chinese dress walked casually out of the shop holding several scrolls in one hand and a scythe in the other.

"That's the weapon girl from the Chunin exams, the one that was on Lee and Neji's team." Sakura stated

Ino nodded and smiled "Yup, that's the one. And you know what else she is? She's pissed off just like us…"

Ino hurried after the girl.

Break

"So what do you two want?" The bun haired girl called Tenten was crossing her arms and frowning at the two that sat in front of her, after they had abruptly approached and started to annoy her to sit down and talk with them they had decided to make their way to a nearby restaurant to talk, they were sitting in a small booth with Sakura and Ino on one side and her on the other.

"We want you." Ino said grinning widely, Sakura was starting to realize some of Ino's old self was starting to come back.

"What…?" tenten questioned.

"We want you…to join our team." Ino clarified.

"What!" this time it came from Sakura "What are you talking about, what team?"

"You, me, and Tenten. And I have one more in mind."

"Team…You mean like what THEY did!" she spat the word they as if it was something foul.

Apparently Tenten and Ino shared something in common.

"I don't want to be like them! And I certainly don't want anything to do with HIM anymore." Sakura had a good idea of who HIM was.

"Hear me out Tenten, we wont be going on some big fancy mission like they did because we cant form our own official team without a Chunin, but that doesn't mean we cant train together, and last time I heard Sakura was getting trained by the Hokage, maybe she can put in a good word for us."

"What!" Sakura screeched "Absolutely not, the training is brutal and sensei would never take on another apprentice."

Ino turned and frowned at her for her hasty dismissal of her plan "Then why did she take you in the first place though! It could have been anyone of us."

"Because I asked" she answered heatedly glaring at the blonde. Ino felt her temper rise and stood up to glared down at the pink haired Girl. "You shouldn't hog her teaching's we want to stronger just as much as you do!"

"Well you have Asuma, I don't have anyone!" Sakura said, a hint of desperation in her voice, out of the entire short time she had been a Kunoichi she had really had no direction, but now she had one as Tsunade's apprentice, and that was the path of a Medic Nin..

Her and her only.

Not Ino.

Not anyone!

"Oh please, that lazy bastard wont teach me a damn thing!" Ino screamed loudly getting the attention of several dining people that were nearby.

"And my Jounin Sensei doesn't even think I'm worth it and not only that he's on missions all the time." Sakura decided to stand up to match Ino's fierce stare with one of her own.

"That still doesn't mean we cant ask Tsunade for help!" Ino growled.

"Yes it can! she's mine!"

Ino punched the table in frustration "Do you hear yourself right now! You sound like some stupid kid clinging to her teddy bear!"

"I don't care, Tsunade is training me and that's final!" Sakura replied.

"Says who!" Ino demanded.

"Says me!"

"Damn it Sakura, why are you being so damn selfish about this! I thought you wanted to help us, we can use Tsunade to get all of us stronger not just you."

"I do want to help! But not like this! If you want a team then Tsunade-Shishou doesn't have to be the one to train us…"

"So you're saying you're the only one that should get Tsunade's special training, Your no different from them!"

"Shut up! Just shut up Ino-pig!" Sakura replied, her fury reaching to its boiling point. "I am not letting you ruin this for me, I'm going to become a Medic like Tsunade, and I don't need you or anyone else getting in the way, this is for me and me only!"

by now the two Kunoichis were practically standing nose to nose and glaring at each other. The whole restaurant had noticed and were now staring eagerly at them for some unexpected entertainment, Tenten was not even paying attention, her head had all but froze at the word "Tsunade" drool began to leak at the corners of her mouth at the thought of being trained by the world's strongest kunoichi.

"You are not being trained by Tsunade!" Sakura growled firmly "She is my teacher."

"You say that but you cant stop me from asking." Ino replied stubbornly.

"I wont let you." Sakura said

Ino narrowed her eyes at Sakura "What are you afraid of forehead? Scared that I might be a better apprentice than you, afraid of showing how weak you are compared to us and everyone else."

"Shut up I'm not weak, and I'm probably stronger than you now after the things I've learned from Tsunade!"

Ino snorted in disbelief "You! stronger than me! don't make me laugh. That draw in the Chunin exams was due to this thing called luck and unfortunately everyone has some of it, even you! Face it you've always been weaker, and you will always be, because inside no matter how much you say you changed your still that same weak little girl.

Sakura swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat, she was not about to show how much those words had hurt her, so she chose to let anger come out instead. "And your still that same obnoxious bitch!" she shouted.

Smack!

Smack!

The two arguing kunoichi stopped as pain shot through their heads, the pink haired girl and the platinum blonde looked to the source of their pain to stare straight into the red eyes of Kurenai Yuuhi holding a book and staring down at them.

"So what are two cute Genin like yourselves arguing so loudly about?"

* * *

><p>Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin giggled as he watched the women frolic in the river, while he peeked on them from some nearby bushes. He had been doing research almost constantly since Naruto had left for his mission, his smile slipped off his face as his short blonde apprentice came to his mind. Jiraiya's couldn't shake the feeling something bad was going to happen. For the past few days the feeling had increased and he couldn't keep ignoring it. As a war veteran he knew all to well that feelings like this were not to be ignored. It could save your life.<p>

Or his apprentice's.

Jiraiya had been debating with himself whether to track the kid and his team or not, if he did then he knew Naruto would never forgive him, and he knew that his apprentice was going to be in life risking situations almost everyday of his life, especially considering what he was carrying inside of him. But on the other hand he knew he would never forgive himself if something did happen to the little brat.

Jiraiya sighed as the women's frolicking became less and less appealing to him. He put his notepad away and gazed towards the clear afternoon sky wondering what the blonde knucklehead was up to now.

The Sennin's Musings were interrupted by a small poof of smoke appearing on his shoulder. Jiraiya of the Sannin's face became one of confusion as the small sage toad Pa stood on his shoulder.

"Jiraiya-Chan! We need you to come with Mount Myoboku immediately, the great Sage has demanded your presence."

Jiraiya's face reflected his surprise, he couldn't remember how long the Great Toad Sage had called for his presence, whatever it was it must be something important. Jiraiya nodded as the old toad began to speed through the hand signs for the reverse summoning Jutsu. Jiraiya let out a deep breath as the effects of the reverse summoning washed over him, the feeling of dread that had plagued him recently increasing ten-fold.

As soon as he touched down on the land of the toads Jiraiya wasted no time and sped off in the direction of the Great Toad Sage's temple, his surroundings becoming a blur as he raced as fast as he could to his destination, the small toad keeping in step with him the whole time. After what seemed like hours Jiraiya finally stood in front of the large structure that was the prophetic toad's home, Jiraiya opened the double doors and stepped inside. When he got inside Jiraiya was not surprised to find Ma already there waiting patiently, she gave a nod of greeting which the Sannin returned. He turned immediately towards the other much larger toad in the room, the old wrinkled form of the great toad Sage stood before him.

Jiraiya kneeled.

"Great toad Sage. what is the matter? Is something wrong with the prophecy." Jiraiya asked urgently.

Silence was his response.

"…"

"…"

"Who are you again?"

"I'm Jiraiya." He answered completely un-phased, he was used to this behavior.

"Oh yes, of course!" The Senile old toad said smiling triumphantly as memory struck and he remembered the white haired man standing before him. As soon as he did however he frowned.

"Jiraiya-Chan, the prophecy has never been more unclear than it is now."

"What is it?" Jiraiya asked, getting frustrated at the toad's vagueness.

"Death." The toad whispered, "It creeps towards him."

"Evil lurks within himself, and within his surroundings. The Child of Prophecy is in great danger."

Jiraiya swallowed "Naruto…" he whispered.

"The poisonous fangs of the snake slithers towards him…'

The toad wheezed and coughed.

"The eyes of revenge watches over him, and it will strike."

"Overwhelming strength plans to crush his dreams and his future…and…"

"What?" Jiraiya asked

"The rippling eyes…"

Jiraiya immediately stopped as fear washed over him like a blanket, he hadn't felt like this since the war and had come face to face with Hanzo himself. The toad Sannin whipped around and leaped into the colorful trees of the area with only one destination in mind…

* * *

><p>"Hey Naruto, get the hell up its time to go!"<p>

Naruto scowled as Kiba's unnecessarily loud voice rang through his head, honestly he was worse than his alarm clock.

"Yeah yeah I'm getting up, hold on a minute!" Naruto stood up and wiped his eyes, when he walked out of the tent everyone was moving about getting ready to set off. The smaller samurai Harima Kentarou walked over to him when he noticed he was up.

"Good morning Uzumaki-San, I hope you slept well." he said with a good natured smile.

"I slept great!" Naruto said honestly, after he had revealed his thoughts with Shikamaru he had felt a lot better, sleep had come to him no problem.

"That's good to hear Uzumaki-san." Kentarou replied with smile. "Uzumaki-San, Kenji-Kun wanted to see you along with the rest of your teammates to discuss something."

Naruto nodded and started making his way towards where he could see Shikamaru and the others talking to Aso Kenji, he also noticed that the window of the carriage was open revealing a bored looking Yukie staring at her nails.

"Umm Uzumaki-San." Naruto turned around at the sound of his name. "Please do not take what Yukie-Sama and Kenji-Kun say personally, they are both good people at heart." the small samurai said.

Naruto just nodded, not quite believing him but willing to make an effort.

"Naruto, hurry the hell up!" Kiba yelled to him. Naruto quickly rushed to their position.

"I'm here! so what did you want to talk about?" Naruto asked not missing the disapproving frown that crossed Kenji's face when he saw him. Naruto mentally snorted

'_good person at heart my ass'_

Kenji cleared his throat "As you know there are some bandits that have exhibited movements surrounding our village. We believe that this an organized group, of course the elite samurais in our village are more than enough to deal with bandits no matter how numerous they are, but unfortunately when they started showing _shinobi_ traits then we knew that needed outside help." he said, spitting the word shinobi as if it pained him.

"So the big bad samurai's couldn't handle the shinobi huh?" Kiba smirked, in a split second there was sharp sword pointed at Kiba's startled face.

"I suggest you watch your tone." Kenji growled menacingly.

"and I…" a voice piped up from behind the samurai's hulking form, it was then that he noticed that Neji was behind Kenji with the sharp end of a kunai positioned at his spine. "Suggest that you watch who you point your swords at."

There was silence as everyone tensed, Naruto had his arm positioned near his Kunai holster and he could tell that Shikamaru and Chouji did too, if they had to kill to save a friend then they would do it in a split second.

"Maybe we should all calm down, I'm sure no one meant any harm, right Kiba?" Chouji said trying to calm everyone down, even though his fingers were still obviously near his holster.

Kiba nodded his head still staring at the sword in front of him.

After a few more tense and agonizing moments Kenji slowly let his sword fall and then sheathed it. Neji from behind let out a sigh of relief and pocketed his Kunai.

"Can we go back to the topic now?" Shikamaru asked, Naruto could tell by his voice that Shikamaru was angry that the samurai had threatened one of their own, Naruto was surprised that he had managed to hold himself back from taking out a kunai of his own.

Kenji cleared his throat again "As I was saying, as soon as they started to show shinobi traits we knew we needed outside help, that is where all of you come queen told Yukie-Sama to get shinobi help while she was on her vacation to Konoha from Tsunade. As you already know Yukie-Sama was attacked on the way here, we managed to barely defeat them, but we also knew that they would probably make another attempt on our way back and this time they would most likely bring more forces with them, so instead of ordering a 3 man cell like we planned, we ordered a 5 man cell in order to even the odds, unfortunately due to the recent invasion Konoha has been low on ninja, and low on cells that make up of 5 shinobi, that is why you 5 were given the task for it.

"6!" Kiba said suddenly

"What?" Kenji asked confused

"We're a 6 man cell! You're forgetting about our good old buddy Akamaru here" Kiba bent down and ruffled Akamaru's fur affectionately, the puppy gave a bark of approval.

Kenji raised one eyebrow and stared at them for a minute "…Certainly…how rude of me. That is why you _6 _were given the task."

"Is that it?" Shikamaru asked tersely.

"Oh there is one more thing you should know, you will be staying in Takeshi village for a period of two months, longer if need be but in that time you will be housing in the Takeshi hotel." Kenji said.

Kiba grinned " Sweet, a Hotel means room service! You hear that boy?" the Inuzuka said speaking to his four legged companion "That means bacon all day!"

Chouji started drooling at the thought free all day bacon, Neji rolled his eyes when he saw his friend's dazed look and turned to speak to the samurai "Will there be a place where we can get some training?" he asked.

Naruto perked up at that, he hadn't forgotten his teacher's advice that he still needed to train as hard as he could, he was actually a little excited to get back to doing the physically grueling training that he had started on after he left the hospital a couple weeks ago.

Just not that horrible diet though…

"Do not worry, the Samurai's have training facilities that will meet all your needs.'

"Alright is that all?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes, that is all" Kenji replied, he calmly went past them and joined the princess who smiled at him when he came near. Naruto frowned at the sight, he frowned even more when he noticed that Kentarou was packing up all by himself, the other two doing nothing to help.

"Hey guys." Naruto nodded over in the smaller samurai's direction "Lets go help him out a little." without a word the Retriever's went to the samurai and started to pick up what was left of the camping site.

"Thank you shinobi-Sans, you are too kind" Kentarou said when he noticed the Retriever's packing things up.

Naruto smiled at him "Don't worry about it."

* * *

><p>Naruto smiled as he watched the three figures cower in front of him, no more than 5 minutes ago Naruto had been almost bored to death, they had immediately set out again after they had finished helping Kentarou pack the things, and what followed was hours of walking and silence as him and the rest of the Retrievers vigilantly watched over the carriage carrying the princess who had started sighing dramatically now and then to get Kenji's attention, a fact that he completely missed. The mission hadn't stayed that way however when three dirty and rugged looking men blocked the carriages and demanded them to give them all their valuables in order to continue without being hurt. The Thugs had been confident and cocky that Is until They noticed Kenji's hulking form, and the headbands adorning their foreheads. Naruto had enjoyed seeing their huge smiles and confident glimmer in their eyes slowly turn into fear and cowardice.<p>

This is where they were currently at. The Retrievers watched as three full grown men shook in their…sandals.

Kenji frowned when he saw the men "These are not the ambushers from before, they are far too unorganized…and cowardly." he sneered at them.

"W-what did you say b-bastard!" the apparent leader of the group yelled, the fact that he was scared was obvious.

"…Did you not hear me?" Kenji asked.

The four men stopped "…No we heard you."

Kenji raised an eyebrow at their answer.

"Then why did you-"

"That's not the point!" the thug leader interrupted, clearly embarrassed. He looked over to his comrades who were cowering in fear.

"Anyway men, attack!" the leader charged, not noticing that his friends had started running the other way, at Kenji who didn't even move a muscle, to him he was moving at snails pace. The thug launched a sloppy punch at the samurai which was dodged easily, in one swift motion Kenji had pulled out his sword and smashed the thug in his stomach with the hilt. The thug gasped at the contact and before long his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped to the ground unconscious.

Naruto chuckled turned his attention to the men who had blatantly abandoned their comrade, he scowled and chased after them. Naruto smiled as they pumped their legs thinking they were going to get away, Naruto took out two kunai, aimed, and fired at their legs. The men screamed when the metal sliced into their legs stopping their movements. Naruto and the rest of the Retrievers wasted no time in tying them up to a tree.

"Well that was fun while it lasted…." Kiba said as he tightened the rope around them.

"Yeah I hope they would have been a little stronger, they're not even strong enough to test ourselves against." Chouji agreed.

"It would not be very smart for us to take every battle we fight from now as simply a test for our strength." Neji frowned.

"Whatever, these guys are trash anyway, they abandoned their friend when they got scared." Naruto kicked one of them. "Wake up bastards!" he yelled.

"I will question them." said Kenji from behind them, Naruto and the others backed up and watched from afar as the tall samurai interrogated the Men. After a few minutes Kenji came back with a look of disappointment on his face "As I thought, they are not the ones who attacked us previously, nor do they have any connections with them.

"Well WE could've told you that." Kiba said, Kenji gave him a look.

"When the life of our princess is at stake we can never be too careful."

"Yeah, Yeah, whatever princess this princess that." Kiba waved him off.

Kenji scowled briefly and looked like he was about to open his mouth to say to reply but stopped and turned around "There is no time for this, we will hit Takeshi village by nightfall. Kentarou, be on your guard!" Kenji said finishing harshly to the smaller Samurai.

"H-hai!"

* * *

><p>"So where are we going again, and why is it important enough to interrupt my training!" said Sasuke Uchiha, apprentice of Orochimaru, and traitor of Konoha.<p>

"Now, now, Sasuke-Chan all will be revealed in due time, one of the key things in being a good shinobi is patience."

Sasuke crossed his arms and glared at the back of the Sannins head. He didn't understand why this was happening, his training had been going spectacularly, he even had started beating up on the freaks around the Snake's hideouts, and some of them were no pushovers.

"When will you actually start teaching me techniques?" he asked abruptly, the Sannin turned and smiled at him, for some reason it was always that smile always made him feel uneasy.

"Was signing the snake contract not enough for you Sasuke-Chan?" Orochimaru asked.

"Ok, two things! First of all, stop calling me that! Second, I'll need more than a few Snakes to kill Itachi!" he replied letting his anger seep through.

"I know that all too well Sasuke-Chan, but that is the reason we're taking this trip in the first place, if snakes wont be enough to kill Itachi then how about something…better."

"…Like what?"

Suddenly Orochimaru's face turned sinister, a grin spread across his face that revealed his hunger for strength and total and utter insanity.

"Eternal Life…"

BREAK

In a dark and secluded cave, figures could be seen, they were in many different shapes and forms, but there was no doubt that one thing could be held true about these figures, all of them held unimaginable power.

"Oi Leader-Sama, What's so important that you had to interrupt me during my prayers, lord Jashin needs to be praised!" The immortal religious Shinobi Hidan said.

"Shut up Hidan…" Kakuzu glared at his partner.

"Don't tell me what to do Kakuzu, you're a man of no faith, all you care about is material things like your useless money!"

"The world works…what am I doing trying to explain this to you, your far too idiotic to understand." Kakuzu said.

"Fuck you!"

"The Zombie lovers are at it again." Kisame Hoshigaki 'monster of the Hidden Mist' chuckled as he watched the two immortal's antics, his partner Itachi Uchiha stood right beside him remaining silent and stoic as usual.

"If its not Kakuzu and Hidan arguing, It's Deidara and Sasori bitching about Art. Honestly, Akatsuki is too fun sometimes." Kisame said as his amusement increased.

"You insulting my art shark face, I'll blow you away with its beauty, yeah!" Deidara the Terrorist artist said as he whipped his tongue out at Kisame in order to be intimidating, unfortunately for him it wasn't working. The hunchback form of Sasori in his puppet Suit spoke up.

"He would be right to insult it. Your so called art is an insult to art in the first place. Short, unfulfilling, and repetitive…its should be called bad sex instead."

"What did you say!" Deidara screamed as a vein popped on his forehead.

"Quiet, all of you…"

The occupants in the room immediately quieted down as the deep voice of their leader rang across the cave, his piercing rippling eyes sending a small tingle of fear up their spines, though they would die before any one of them admitted it.

"Sasori, you are the one who requested this gathering, tell us what you need to say." The leader ordered.

Sasori nodded and began "I got word from my informant a while ago, that Orochimaru is to be on the move."

Hidan sighed at the news "Oh come on, that snake bastard again! shouldn't we have killed him like years ago?"

"Yes we should have, but there were more important matters at the time than a wayward snake." the leader said.

Sasori cleared his throat and continued "It seems whatever he is following is something that he is betting a lot on, since Orochimaru would never risk himself being out in the open so soon after his transfer.

Kisame laughed "Wonder what the old bastard has up his sleeve now…so we going to kill him?" Kisame asked Nonchalantly.

The leader said nothing for a few moments, seemingly to take sometime to think about his decision.

"It is time, Orochimaru is too dangerous to be left alone, especially with your brother in his care Itachi." The leader put his purple eyes over the only Sharingan user in the room.

Itachi stared straight back into them and said nothing.

"Awesome! So who's gonna do it Leader-Sama?' Kisame asked.

"Let me Leader-Sama, My scythes been needing blood, and I'm sure Kakuzu wants to cash in on the bounty."

"I can speak for myself Idiot…" Kakuzu growled.

"No, leader-Sama, I can turn Orochimaru's ugly mug into something beautiful with my art, yeah!" Deidara said.

"…Or after I kill him, I can examine his body and look for any secrets." Sasori said.

"No…"

They all quieted down at his answer.

"Orochimaru may be no match for us, but it is not his strength that worries me, it is his tricks and his tenacity, the man, if he could even be called one any more, can even seemingly come back from the dead."

The leader's rippling purple eyes seemed like they were starting to glow.

"Orochimaru needs to be completely wiped off the face of this planet, he needs to face God's Judgment, He needs to feel pain…"

The leader's eyes seemed to be emitting something now.

Bloodlust.

"I will go myself…"

* * *

><p><strong>LOL arent you wondering how the hell things are going to go for them now! seriously this is the part of the story i have been dying to get to, and you will be seeing what is going on with Konoha every now and then. lol i didnt want to write Sakura and Ino because im a guy and i dont do girls because i dont want to write something stupid and offend somebody or just fuck it up real bad, hopefully i ddint fuck it up =). actually i think i did alright.<strong>

**I am RonaldWeasleyTheHero Savior of Naruto fanfiction cliche's!**

**Bashing? NO!**

**Kits? No**

**" Fem Kyubi " NO!**

**highly irrationaly konoha citizens No!**

**and just about every single naruto cliche out there i will try to avoid.i mean this is my story im not goin to ruing it because of how many chicks i want naruto to sleep with -_-.**


	9. The Last Member

_lol i updated =). its been about a month since the last one right? hopefully people still read this. not much here im just getting the last member of the girl's team out of the way, im doing some major research and last minute revision to my plot, i dont want to make any stupid mistakes. oh by the way the reviews were very flattering. Chaos herself your review had me laughing for a long time, and trust me its not courage that made me write this fic, i dont have any confidence at all with my writing considering i write chapters and wait weeks before updating them because im scared of the feedback. im just tired of the same old Naruto Fics. and you know how the old saying goes "if you want something done...you do it?"...or something like that._

**Disclaimer: I dont own naruto**

* * *

><p><strong>The Last Member<strong>

They weren't talking to each other now. Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka were perfectly content to ignoring each other's presence. The two girls sat on the same side of the restaurant booth they were in except this time a nervous Tenten was sitting between them. The three were silent as Kurenai studied them all with her piercing red eyes.

"So lets clarify this situation. You all want to start to an unofficial team to train and grow stronger right?"

Ino nodded.

"And Ino suggested that Tsunade be the one to train you guys, something which Sakura clearly disapproves of."

Sakura nodded.

Kurenai sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose "Even though you two disagreed on something I expect better behavior from you two than this. You represent proud Kunoichi of Konoha and you should act accordingly."

"Sorry sensei." Sakura and Ino said apologizing at the same time, as soon as they did however their heads snapped to the side and their angry eyes met each other in a fierce staring contest. Sparks seem to fly between them. The unlucky Tenten who was unfortunate enough to be seated in the middle could only sweat drop at their behavior.

"Both of you calm down. What did I just say about proper behavior?" Kurenai said.

The two Kunoichi reluctantly pulled back from each other's gaze with simultaneous huffs.

"Ok, one thing I think need to say is this," Kurenai tuned to look at Ino "Ino, I'm going to have to agree on Sakura about asking Hokage-Sama to be your mentor. She has just been put into office not too long ago, also add on the fact that she sometimes works at the hospital and is apprenticing Sakura I highly doubt that she would have time if the number of Kunoichi's she had to train suddenly increased.

Ino frowned at the explanation "Yeah…I guess" she muttered.

Sakura smiled and let out an inner sigh of relief that Ino would not pursue her teacher any further.

"But rest assured there are plenty of Shinobi out there capable of training you. And if you all want to make a team then you need someone who is willing to devote their time to teach you."

"Ummm I haven't decided anything yet…." Tenten said.

Kurenai looked at her "So you're not part of the team?"

Tenten scratched her head "Well this seems like a good idea and all, but I have my own team to take care of, and I don't want to just want to leave them.

"No you wont have to leave them! We would never make you do that…" Ino said, she would not would want to inflict the same pain that she was feeling right now on anybody else. " there is nothing official about this, its just us…"

Tenten seemed to think over the idea for a moment. She didn't have many friends that were girls, and she knew for a fact that the grueling physical training that Gai and Lee make her go through constantly was only helping her physically, maybe this was the opportunity to sharpen up her other skills." Ok. Ill stick with you guys, but no promises and I wont let it interfere with the time I have with Lee and Gai.

Sakura smiled and Ino cheered and hugged the girl who quickly tried to pry the blonde off her with no success "Yes! Welcome to team Tenten."

"Ok I get it! Stop hugging me…"

Kurenai turned her attention to Sakura as Tenten struggled with Ino "So I am guessing you accepted also?" she asked

Sakura nodded," I'm dedicating my life to being a Shinobi now, and bringing Sasuke back, even though I know that I'll probably almost die everyday from Tsunade's training I still want to do this.

Kurenai smiled approvingly at the girl's response "That's what I like to hear."

"Thanks for helping us sensei, we really appreciate it" Ino pried herself away from a relieved Tenten to shake the woman's hands. The blonde quickly strode over to the exit motioning for the other two young women to follow "Come on! We are going to get our last member.

"And who is this last member?" Kurenai asked causing Ino to stop and answer her

"Its Hinata."

Kurenai raised an eyebrow and rubbed her chin, thinking about Hinata and her own team. Hinata and Shino had been doing relatively alright since Kiba left, but there was a noticeable decrease in conversation in team 8 considering the type of personalities Shino and Hinata had. but Kiba's absence had not affected their training regimen at all, in fact it was almost the opposite. Hinata had started taken a rigorous training regimen, and Kurenai was suspecting that she took an even more rigorous one at home with Hiashi. Shino had gotten noticeably stronger since the Chunin exams, his proficiency in using his bugs had taken a noticeable increase and he seemed to be trying to improve on his weakness which was Taijutsu. Even though she knew that they were doing well she still couldn't help the fact that the team felt broken. Hinata in particular, without Kiba constantly trying to urge her on and without Naruto's bright presence causing her to try harder she seemed to be getting worse socially, despite the fact that Shino was trying his best, the bug boy was far from the talkative type. This could be exactly what she Hinata needs.

'_And maybe even'_…Kurenai smiled as the thought went through her head.

"Hmm… so you want Hinata in your group huh?" Kurenai said as if she was still thinking about what they had said.

"Yeah…" Ino said a little nervously, finally realizing that she was talking to her fourth member's sensei.

"Would that be a problem Kurenai-sensei?" Sakura asked.

Kurenai stopped rubbing her chin and answered the pink haired girl brightly "Nope! actually I think this is a great idea. Say you wouldn't mind if I tagged along would you?"

Ino shook her head "Not at all…"

"When I think about it this is kind of cool…making our own team and all." Tenten said.

Ino giggled behind her hand "I know what you mean, by the time 'They' come back we will be going circles around them."

Sakura chuckled then suddenly remembered that she was suppose to be mad at Ino, but despite that she couldn't find it in herself to remain angry. Sakura tapped Ino's shoulder and the blonde who had been conversing with Tenten turned and looked at her. Sakura had honestly expected Ino to give her a look of contempt but instead as soon as she laid eyes on her, Ino's facial features softened "Listen Sakura I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said…you are strong, much stronger than people give you credit for."

Sakura shook her head laughed " No its alright, honestly I should have handled that better than I did, I'm sorry too" Sakura put her hand out to Ino.

"Friends?" she asked.

Ino stared at her hand then straight into her eyes. The platinum haired girl grinned and shook her hands " Best friends."

Suddenly Sakura found herself being yanked forward as Ino pulled her into a hug, they both started to laugh together getting lost in their amusement.

Tenten watched them as she absentmindedly twirled a kunai in her index finger.

"I'm glad that's over, it wouldn't be much of a team if two of our members were mad at each other…I mean come on you guys were completely at each others-OOF!" Tenten suddenly stopped talking as she was assaulted by the pinkette and the platinum blonde and forced to join in what was now a three way hug.

"Hey get off me! No hugging!"

Unfortunately for the weapons user, Sakura's and Ino's only response was to laugh even harder.

Break

Hyuga Hiashi was a patient man, as a veteran Ninja, leader, and all around amazing family man he considered himself to be. He really couldn't afford to be anything else. But as he watched the three girls and one woman in front of him he couldn't help but lose his patience.

The group of four had suddenly knocked on his door, and had asked for his daughter. When he had refused them demanding to know what for, Hiashi had found himself almost laughing and closing the door in their faces when they told him what they wanted to do. But fortunately for them…

Hyuga Hiashi never laughed.

He simply stood there and silently assessed the girls who the Jonin was saying was to part of this "team". to him it sounded more like gathering of silly little girls rather than serious ninja's trying to better than themselves.

The blonde one who had been staring at his estate with shining eyes was amusingly weak to him, and seriously misguided. She would most likely die in the battlefield raped and forgotten like the rest of her kind.

The pink haired one was also weak, but he had heard that she had taken the interest of the Fifth, that meant that she was interesting, though still weak.

The Brown haired one he knew better than the others due to her being his nephews teammate for so long, though he still found her somewhat weak, but there was no doubt she was competent in what she did.

This one had hope.

He had let them inside the house against his better judgment, and sat them down at a large and neatly decorated table. he was glad that they all knew how to sit properly, with their legs tucked underneath their thighs.

At least they knew manners.

Hiashi stopped paying attention to the girls and turn his attention to the Jonin with red eyes "Kurenai-San I have trusted your judgment with my daughter's well being many times…but this. I am sorry but I cant agree to this right now…. I cant see how my daughter would benefit from this in any way."

"Well…" she began" I want Hinata to be more social-" Hiashi immediately interrupted her "I don't need Hinata to be social, I need her to be strong."

Kurenai felt a tiny bit of anger rise in her "And you also need her to be a leader one day, and she cant have that without exercising her communication skills." she growled.

Hiashi closed his eyes in frustration, he honestly did not disapprove of this plan.

Hiashi's eyes turned to the three nervous girls.

Just the company that came with it.

"Hinata!" He called suddenly, there was startled "eep" sound that came from a nearby doorway, it slid open and Hinata rushed into the room and immediately kneeled down low in front of her father. "I-I am sorry father I didn't mean to e-e-eavesdrop. "

Hiashi quickly dismissed her apologies "It is fine, Hinata do you want to partake in this?" he asked her.

Hinata raised her head to look at him, though her eyes never met his. Hiashi could not remember the last time she had look straight at him, she always seemed to be looking everywhere else trying to avoid eye contact. After she looked at him she looked at the four other females in the room, Sakura, Ino, and Tenten waved feebly at her.

"I would l-like to do this."

Hiashi once again closed his eyes, he opened them after a little awhile and looked straight at Kurenai who looked straight back. "Very well, as you heard she has made her decision, however whatever this training group is doing cannot and will not affect her regular training schedule." said Hiashi.

"I assure you, it wont.." Kurenai replied.

Hiashi nodded "Do you need her right now?

"Yes if you don't mind."

Hiashi stood and took a glace out a nearby window, there was only a few hours left of sunlight he noted.

"Have her back before sundown."

"No problem, is that all?"

"Yes that is all. You may leave now."

Kurenai stood up and bowed to him the other girls trying to imitate her behavior clumsily. "Thank you Hiashi-San." Kurenai said, than looked at Hinata "Come with us Hinata."

Hinata without looking back quickly followed them out leaving Hiashi alone and still staring out the window.

The Hyuga clan leader didn't notice when his youngest daughter Hanabi walked up beside him and tugged on his pristine robes.

"Father where did sister go?"

"She went with her friends to go handle some things Hanabi" he answered.

"Why?" she asked

"Girls do things like this when they are that age, they gain their independence, and they start to worry about the most ridiculous things like _Boys" Hiashi spat, fully aware of his daughters obsession with the Kyuubi Jinchiruuki_

_Hanabi who didn't really understand why her father said the word boys as if it was the worst thing on the planet just asked another question "Will I worry about boys too father?"_

_Hiashi turned to his daughter trying to hide his smile "Not until you are 35 Hanabi."_

_Hanabi tilted her head to the side as another question came to mind, still not quite understanding "Will I be 35 soon father?"_

_Hiashi was unable to hide his smile this time, the Hyuga patted his daughter's head "You will be 35 in no time."_

_Suddenly images of a fully naked women with ample bosoms and slim curvy waists with whisker marks on their faces flashed through her mind. "Father…I think I should be worrying about girls instead."_

_Hiashi felt his mind go blank, and sheer panic washed over him , he didn't even notice that his voice went several pitches higher as he spoke "…What?" he squeaked._

* * *

><p><em>The last part where its in like different writing and stuff, i didnt do that on purpose, fanfiction did it and i cant fix -_-, if anyone wanted to know Hangover will be updated ( that story i just love it) im glad you are enjoying this story wilkos. readers can rest easy knowing the retriever's will be the stars of the next chapter and finally reach the vilage where stuff will get underway. oh and wilkos, i may dissapoint you with your "high expectations" because as you can see im not the best writer but i will try my best.<em>


	10. The Training Exercise

Hi to the people who still read this =), its me RonaldWeasleyTheHero returning to give you another chapter, i know im suppose to be focusing on the boys right now and the shit storm thats about to hit them but this chapter i felt was very important to the girls development, and well i wanted to practice fight scenes a little bit, and people can rest easy knowing that i am not going to abandon this story unless you know i die or something 0-0. i wanna say thank you to my awesome reviewers for your kind words that help me continue this story despite everything. One thing i do need to say is that i know this story is going at a slow pace but just bare with me.

and one more thing how do i get Beta, i have no idea how to get one or how the whole thing works, do you just ask for one and hope somebody volunteers, in that case.

I NEED A BETA! ANYONE WILL DO!

oh and by the way i love Shino he is so awesome!

so like everytime point out my mistakes and what not

and wlkwos, grammar and spelling check = AWESOME!

Is anyone else excited about the new chapters of Naruto, i mean the whole Madara is not Madara twist was totally cool, it really got me interested in the plot again. oh and if anyone wants i recommend watching Naruto Shippuden episode 235 and 236, even though they are a filler i enjoyed them immensely, and episode 236 was kind of eerie to watch for me ( if you watch you will see why). and episode 235 was beautiful because it highlighted what kind of men Naruto and Jiraiya really are and my heart broke for them, especially Jiraiya. =(

Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by that dude whose name i keep forgetting...Masashi Kishimoto!...

* * *

><p><strong> The Training Exercise<strong>

Hinata Hyuga felt her nervous habit of twiddling her index fingers kick in as she followed the quartet of Kunoichi in front of her. When she had woken up today this had been the last thing that she had been expecting, with her team broken up and her crush gone for two months Hinata had resigned herself to the unwelcoming routine of waking up and spending hours and hours under her father's strict training schedule. Now she felt a small bit of excitement well up in her, she was going to spend more time with Kurenai Sensei who she had been missing terribly for the past few days and maybe make some new friends along the way. She hardly ever spoke to Ino and Sakura due to the fact that they had nothing in common and the brown haired girl she barely knew at all, all she could recall was her name and the fact that she favored weapons in battle. Hinata's thoughts were interrupted as Ino began speaking.

"Whew, Thanks Kurenai-Sensei, I couldn't imagine what would have happened if we went without you."

"I can, we would have gotten our heads bitten off by the bastard." Tenten said then turned to Hinata.

"No offense."

Hinata just shook her head, not offended in the least.

"Excuse me, Kurenai-Sensei, but what exactly are we d-doing." Hinata asked, then blushed when all eyes focused on her. "I-I just wanted to k-know" she squeaked.

"We are starting our own team, Hinata." Sakura answered.

Ino grinned smugly "It was my idea just so you know…"

Tenten rolled her eyes "And what brilliant idea it was."

"Now all we need is a leader." Sakura continued to explain to Hinata, ignoring the other two.

"Well...I could be your leader, I'm much stronger that you guys anyway, and not to mention I AM the senior Kunoichi." Tenten chuckled when she saw Ino's outraged face.

"Like hell I'm following orders from someone only 1 year older than me." Ino said heatedly.

"Get use to it honey, because right now I don't see any other option." Tenten grinned when Ino scowled and remained silent. Ino's mood changed from a scowl to a look of terror when suddenly roots sprang from the ground and began to snake around her form.

"W-what the hell!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with panic. The platinum blonde was startled even further when the face of the Jonin that was accompanying them appeared from one of the roots and whispered in her ear "How about someone 15 years older than you?"

Suddenly the strange roots disappeared along with the older woman's face. Ino found herself standing on the exact same spot with Kurenai standing a few feet away from her holding a hand-sign.

The fear and panic that had consumed her just a few seconds ago turned to awe "That. Was. Amazing!" Ino screamed looking at the woman with stars shining in her eyes.

"That was awesome sensei, what kind of jutsu was that!" Ino asked cheerfully, unaware that she had just been caught in a Genjutsu. She turned to the other three "That was amazing wasn't it, didn't you guys see that!" she questioned, still ignorant of the fact that she had been the only one to see it.

"I-ino, that was Kurenai-Sensei's Genjutsu, you were to only who was able to see it." Hinata said, she was very familiar with her Sensei's Genjutsu as she had seen her use it countless times to beat a variety of enemies.

"Genjutsu!" Ino said loudly, as if it was the only thing that had come out of the Hyuga girls mouth. The blonde girl turned to the Jonin "Is that what it was?"

Kurenai who had been sitting back and enjoying the blonde's enthusiastic reaction towards her particular field chuckled a little bit. "Yes that was Genjutsu, I might teach you a few of my little moves if I get the chance"

The last sentence seemed to snap the girl back to reality causing her finally realize what the red eyed woman had whispered to her "Wait you wanna be our Sensei!" Ino asked.

"Of course, I thought that would have been obvious by now…"

"Yes! That would be great!" ion cheered, thinking that with Kurenai teaching them she might get a chance to learn the Genjutsu.

Kurenai shrugged her shoulders "Considering you were planning to take one of my students it works out I guess."

Sakura smiled thankfully that they had finally found a Sensei.

Hinata felt herself sigh in relief that someone she knew was guiding her.

And Tenten grumbled at not getting the chance to lead an all female team.

"Alright I want everybody moving fast since we don't have as much time as I would have liked." Kurenai pulled a hand-sign and prepared to perform a shun-shin "All of you head to training ground 24, I will meet you there shortly." With that, the red eyed woman disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

The girls immediately leaped to the nearest branches in search of training ground 24.

* * *

><p>The short time Kurenai Yuuhi had been a Jonin and a Sensei to Team 8 she had come to know Aburame Shino as many things. He was hardworking, diligent, logical, stoic, and despite first impressions a very good hearted person. But one thing she never thought would be associated with him was pig-headed stubbornness.<p>

"I decline…"

"Come on, Shino, this is a very good opportunity to learn new things." she asked again for about the 50th time.

"I still decline." Shino answered as he scoured the nearby trees for any bugs he could use to upgrade his arsenal. The Aburame had been enjoying himself at a local training ground, training, talking to his bugs, along with various other things for the sake of wasting time which was something he seemed to have a lot of these days. It had been fine and quiet until his sensei had suddenly appeared and asked him to come help her with a couple shinobi for training purposes. Now, Shino Aburame was not one to reject training in any form but he had a gut feeling that there was more to this than simply helping her with Shinobi. He decided that if kept rejecting her she would eventually leave and he could go back to talking to his new beetle. Shino got ready to reject her once again as she released a sigh of frustration,

"Shino, I don't have a lot of time for this so please come with me."

Shino turned to stare at her "And who exactly are these 'shinobi' I will be helping you with?" He asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"They are your classmates and friends." She said vaguely. Shino's mind on the other hand began to come to a conclusion. He was fully aware that his graduation classmates, Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Chouji were out on a mission. This left only a select few that he could be helping, going back to his original plan Shino chose to…

"I decline." He answered her, though he could tell that she wouldn't relent any time soon and immediately prepared to reject her again.

"Shino, don't you want to help those girls out they could really use your hel-" Kurenai came to a halt when shino raised a hand and stopped her.

"Wait…they are all girls?" he asked.

Kurenai raised an eyebrow at the his question "Yes, so what?"

A long silence followed after that.

"I decline..."

"Wait, Shino."

"I decline…"

"But-"

"I decline!"

Kurenai face palmed not believing she was having this conversation with the person she thought was probably her most competent pupil. Kurenai was sorely tempted to just pull the rank card and order him to do it, I mean what the hell was he afraid of, a couple of girls?

Then it her.

"Shino…are you being shy?" She giggled.

"…'

"…"

She started giggling even louder when he didn't respond.

"I am going to leave now" Shino adjusted his glasses before speeding off as fast as he could. Kurenai unsuccessfully tried to stifle her giggles as she followed him.

"Shino, I'm sorry." She giggled again.

"I decline."

"Shino!'

"I decline!"

* * *

><p>"Sensei what is this?" Sakura asked as she stood in training ground 24 as she watched her newly appointed sensei drag a hog tied Aburame Shino and plop him unceremoniously in front of them, a muffled grunt was heard from the tied up boy.<p>

"Sh-shino-Kun!" Hinata squeaked as she hastily went to untie her teammate.

Tenten kneeled down besides the bug boy, who let out a gasp of air as he was ungagged by his Hyuga teammate. "Didn't I see you at the Chunin exams?' she snapped her fingers as her memory struck " You're the one with the freaky bugs!"

"Yes…that is me, Aburame Shino, nice to meet you." Shino stood and shook her hand. "Now I will take my leave." shino began to walk away but before he could even take a couple steps he was grabbed the the scruff of his neck and pulled back to face the girls, who by now were probably wondering why the hell he was here in the first place.

"So umm sensei what IS he doing here?" Ino asked as she gazed at shino wearily.

Kurenai slapped him on the back and smiled luminously. "Well Shino here is to help us with today's exercise."

"He is!But why him?"Ino demanded as she pointed at the bug boy who just focused his gaze on her causing her to shiver.

"I agree with the blonde girl who's name escapes me right now."shino stated.

Ino glared at him.

Shino ignored her.

"I picked you because your the best one for the job, now no more questions, I want the girls on one side, and Shino, I want you on the other."

Shino obediently made his way to one side of the training ground while the girls walked to the other still confused on why Shino was there.

Sakura who was standing besides Ino hissed when she was nudged in the ribs "What?" She asked a tiny bit irritated

"This is a complete disaster don't you think,of all the people that couldve helped us, Kurenai just had to pick the creepiest one of them all. Look at his hair, he obviously doesn't comb, and whats with the clothes?" Ino scoffed. "No fashion sense whatsoever..." Ino said glaring at the boy across the training ground who had put his hands inside his jacket pockets.

"I don't think we should be worrying about that right now," sakura put her hands on her hips and fixed Ino with stern gaze "We're here to train remember?"

"I know that." Ino replied while frowning, "But I still don't like him..."

"Shino-kun is very strong and smart Ino-San, Kurenai-sensei k-knows what she is doing..." Hinata said.

Tenten smirked then stared challengingly at the boy across the training ground "Who cares what he looks like, he's strong and I want to fight him." tenten said.

"Girls!"

The four stopped talking when they heard Kurenai's voice, the woman was looking at them and tapping the side of her head "Head in the game, ladies." The red eyed woman clapped her hand and spoke in a loud voice. "Alright its time to begin. Sakura, Ino, tenten, Hinata! Today I want you four to try and defeat him." she spoke loudly and firmly, not noticing the the girls shocked expression and Shino's raised eyebrows. "There are no rules and the time limit is one hour." Kurenai takes a deep breath.

"Begin!"

Nothing happened.

"Whats the matter, your time is running out and there will be a punishment if you lose..." Kurenai said to the stone stiff girls.

Tenten finally spoke up "...At the same time?"

Kurenai laughed, "Yup!"

"But this is is totally unfair, Kurenai-Sensei." Sakura protested.

"I beg to differ…Sakura" Shino spoke up, Sakura looked at him and instantly got the feeling that he was looking down on her.

"So you're saying that you could take all of us on?" Sakura asked skeptically.

"I said no such thing, however, I don't see myself coming out of this harmed in any way."

"Oh he is totally asking for it!" Tenten bellowed before pulling out her scrolls, the weapons kunoichi went full out from the beginning, spinning her scrolls in an intricate dance before leaping into the air.

"**Twin rising dragons!"**

Shino stood still as the brown haired girl began to make it rain weapons. The other girls began to worry when he didn't even attempt to dodge as the onslaught of metal neared closer to him, a moment later the Aburame's form disappeared under a haze of sharp metal.

"Shino-kun!" Hinata cried fearfully, she activated her byakugan to search the area afraid of finding her teammate's bloody body, tenten landed on the ground looking pale.

"I didn't...he should have...I thought he would have moved!"

Hinata continued to search trying to drown out her teammates ramblings, it took only a few seconds to realize he was gone, Hinata let out a sigh of relief.

"He-he's not here , he must have switched." she said.

"Jeez, Tenten, what did you think was going to happen when you throw hundreds of dangerous objects at somebody." Ino said rolling her eyes.

"Look Blondie, I don't need you of all people criticizing me!" Tenten snapped.

"And what the hell is that suppose to mean!" Ino shouted heatedly.

"Guys, this is not the time!" Sakura said loudly trying to get their attention, Ino and Tenten however ignored her pleas and continued to argue.

Hinata began to twiddle her fingers as she nervously stood to the side as the three of them started to exchange words in a furious pace.

"At lease my moves are lethal! Yours are better off at a magic show!' Tenten screamed

"What did you say?" ino cried indignantly "I'll have you know that the Yamanaka clan's techniques is one of the reasons why Konoha is the strongest ninja village.

"Would you stop it already, your both acting stupid." Sakura cut in, trying to make peace between them.

"Keep out of it pinky." Tenten said suddenly causing Sakura's temper to flare.

"What did you call me!" she shouted.

Hinata who was still standing to the side tried to speak up, still well aware that Shino Aburame was still in the vicinity watching them and waiting for a chance to strike.

"A-ano Sakura...Tenten" Hinata said, but her naturally low voice could not be heard through their collective shouting.

"Never mind Blondie over here, you don't even have any techniques to call your own."

"Well I got news for you, anyone can throw a fucking Kunai!"

"I-ino...everyone...we-we need to hide we cant stay out h-" Hinata was cut off again.

"It took me years-YEARS to learn how to throw every single one of those weapons with extreme precision, it took hard work, something you only apply to your hair

"If we're talking about hair, does that brown crap on your head qualify."

"I've had enough of this!" Sakura cupped her mouth and spoke to the surrounding area "Kurenai-Sensei, call off the exercise."

Hinata who was still standing to the side shook her head knowing full well that her Sensei was not going to stop the exercise "She wont stop it S-sakura, right now what we n-need to do is find someplac-" Hinata was cut off again but this time it wasn't one of the screaming females.

A small 'Thunk' sound rang through their ears, barely audible, but all ninja's were trained to the bone to recognize the sound.

A kunai hitting the ground.

A kunai with an explosive tag wrapped around it.

the four girls didn't waste a second and immediately scrambled for safety as a loud explosion rocked the area.

Ino who had her eyes closed from the debris didn't see the hand that came rushing out of the smoke to connect cleanly with her face. She cried out in pain and staggered back trying and failing to regain her footing, she wasn't allowed to as another hit connected with her abdomen causing her to forcefully expel all the air in her body. The platinum blonde fell on her knees clutching her stomach when another hit landed, this time one her face causing her head to snap to the side and white spots to explode in her vision. Through her pain Ino was able to open one eye just barely to make out the form of Aburame Shino thick black smoke behind him standing above her with his hands in his jacket looking completely calm as if he hadn't just beaten her to a bloody pulp. Gathering what was left of her strength Ino spit her blood at the ground near his feet.

She slowly began to collapse "Screw...you" she whispered before she fell unconscious, before she did she could have sworn she heard the sound of her name.

"Ino!" Hinata cried out jumping out of the smoke behind the bug user catching him off guard, The Hyuga wasted no time and began to attack him ferociously with her family's signature taijutsu, Shino was unprepared and resorted to only dodging her strikes, Hinata seeing her opportunity increased her efforts, shino kept backing away from her attacks leaving no room open for a counterattack on his part. The bug boy continued to dodge until his back hit a tree, that's when she struck, Hinata lunged like a wild animal and rapidly began to close his tenketsu's as best she can, as she pounded into him Hinata had the distinct feeling that something was wrong. But as the Hyuuga heiress tried to close another chakra point it was already too late.

Shino's body exploded into a cloud of bugs and began to wrap themselves around her.

"A clone!" She thought, the Hyuga girl began to struggle as the bugs rapidly began to cover her but it was no use, the bugs were already draining her chakra, a few seconds later Hinata dropped to ground, her chakra completely consumed by Shino's bugs.

When the smoke finally cleared Hyuga Hinata and Yamanaka Ino lay on the floor defeated.

* * *

><p>Sakura and Tenten were silent as they leaped though the trees, a mixture of feelings running through them, On their backs were their unconscious friends. Sakura was carrying Ino and Tenten was carrying Hinata. The pink haired Kunoichi felt absolutely disgusted with herself, she had thought that maybe she was pass this kind of behavior, that she would be able to keep calm in a situation like this yet she had argued and raged with the people that were suppose to be on her side. Most of all she had let Kurenai-Sensei down, the red eyed Kunoichi was probably done with them now considering they couldn't stop arguing long enough to defeat a single enemy.<p>

Sakura came to a stop at a clearing to lay down her best friend on a nearby tree causing Tenten to do the same with Hinata. After she took her blonde friend off her back she began to examine her.

Ino had been beaten badly.

Just from a quick look she could tell that she had a broken jaw and possibly a broken nose, red bruises were one her cheeks and there was dried blood near her mouth and nose, Sakura felt a surge of anger ripple through her body at the sight of her friend like this. Was this really necessary? Did shino have to destroy her like this? This was suppose to be a training exercise!

"Hey!" Sakura snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Tenten's voice, turning just in time to catch a small box.

"It's a first aid kit, fix her up would you..." Tenten said.

Sakura gave a nod and started to patch up her teammate, she would have used some of the healing Jutsu's she learned from Tsunade but she hadn't advanced that far in her training to use it on a human being. When she was done Sakura was about to go and examine Hinata but she came to a halt when Tenten spoke "Don't bother, shes not injured, just drained, the asshole caught her with his bugs."

Sakura stopped and sat back down, her mind working furiously to try and find a solution to this problem. Sakura knew she couldn't confront him directly with taijutsu since even though it pained her to admit it he was probably better than her at taijutsu. She had no Ninjutsu besides the Academy ones so she wouldn't be able outdo him in that category. And going by the few times she she had seen him fight she knew he was intelligent so outsmarting would be difficult.

Very difficult.

"Hey, are we just going to sit here all day and twiddle our thumbs, we got an asshole out there to beat!" Tenten said loudly, once again bringing her out of her thoughts.

"I know that, It's just I cant think of anything that we can do that would give us an advantage over him" she answered frowning.

"We got two of us and one of him, how about a good ole fashion beat down." Tenten growled.

Sakura shook her head "No we cant, he has his bugs to back him up, and I'm horrible close quarters."

Tenten let out a frustrated sigh "Damn it, this is so annoying, I've spent all my life being accurate with practically every weapon in Konoha and it's all useless in front of a few stupid flies.

"Tenten..." Sakura began slowly, a crazy idea forming in her head "Hw accurate are you?"

"Pinpoint accurate. Why?" Tenten asked when she noticed her smirking face.

"I got an idea..."

* * *

><p>Shino yawned as he stood in the middle of the training ground, beside him a smoldering crater that had been formed from his explosive tag. Things were getting boring, he had been waiting for almost forty minutes for Tenten and Sakura to do something, and by how low the sun was time was running out quickly since Kurenai told them they only had an hour. The Aburame had decided to stand and wait making his presence obvious for them, coming to the conclusion that even without the element of surprise he would still win against Sakura and Tenten.<p>

Shino stopped and suddenly snatched a kunai from his holster to deflect three shurikens that were thrown from the nearby forest.

"Come out Sakura, lets end this quickly..." He spoke. The pink haired kunoich dropped from one of the branches and glared at him hatefully. " Yeah, lets finish this." Sakura slowly positioned herself into the basic Academy style taijutsu.

Shino adjusted his glasses.

The wind rustled the leaves.

Sakura's fingers twitched.

And like a rocket she charged off, using chakra to propel herself towards him. Shino barely had time to put his defense up as she unleashed a punch aimed at his face, the fist connected with his arms instead.

But shino Aburame had not expected the punch to hurt like fucking hell!

The bug using shinobi grunted as pain shot through his body, he couldve have sworn he heard something snap, he didn't have time to dwell on it however as she started a furious assault of kicks and punches. Shino found himself being pushed back, the unexpected damage the first punch had given him had left him disoriented and his reflexes a little slower and the pink haired girl was obviously capitalizing on it.

"Not so tough now huh!" She taunted as she feinted a right only to hit him with left hook that got through his guard, Shino staggered back and Sakura continued her attack crouching low to the ground and sweeping him off his feet. Shino didn't fall however, as he was about to he used his hands to backflip away and create some distance.

Shino took deep breaths in order to calm his rapidly beating heart, he cursed himself for letting her get the advantage, he cursed himself for losing his concentration, and most of all he cursed himself for underestimating her. He had not expected her to be able to use Tsunade's super strength, though it was at a much lower level. Even though he was well aware that she was now The Hokage's pupil, it was common knowledge that Tsunade of the legendary Sannin took years to develop her technique and even more to master. For her to be able to use something like that not only surprised shino...it downright scared him.

"It seems I have underestimated you, Sakura" Shino stated calmly, trying not show her any emotion.

Sakura smirked at him "Well don't underestimate me!" she said feeling a strange sort of giddiness at quoting Naruto. No wonder Naruto was happy all the time, there was nothing compared to the feeling of somebody underestimating you then proving them dead wrong.

She could get addicted to this.

"Yes, it seems I have and for that I apologize, shall we begin...?" he asked dropping into a stance.

"Gladly!" Sakura put her hands together and blurred though hand-signs

"**Bushin!" **

Two clones appeared at her side each taking out a kunai. Shino stayed in his place as her and the clones got closer to him, as soon as they met her and the clones began a coordinated attack that Shino dodged easily, once he had calmed down and the pain from the earlier attack had subsided, it was much easier to dodge the attacks, considering her taijutsu was still the Academy's basic one and thus predictable. Even with the clone illusions by her side she still wasn't landing any hits and Shino could tell she was getting frustrated. Shino decided to end her suffering and go on the offensive, the bug boy caught her leg when she attempted a high kick and went for a punch to her face.

Once again Shino was floored when a kunai came from out of nowhere to slice into his hand.

He let go of her leg abruptly to clutch the now bleeding hand, Shino cursed himself for about the millionth time that day, he had completely forgotten about Tenten during his bout with Sakura, it was a careless and stupid mistake and he did not DO careless and stupid.

"You forget something bug brain, its still 2 vs 1" came Tenten's disembodied voice from the surrounding area,

Another came flying out of the trees which Shino sidestepped easily, what he did not count on was Sakura appearing at his blindside to knee him in the abdomen followed by an elbow to his Nose, Shino reeled in pain, a small stream of blood now flowing from his nose.

"That's one broken nose, Shino, now for a broken jaw!" Sakura screamed and went for him again. Shino finally had enough and hurriedly went for his holster to pull out a smoke pellet, he immediately threw it on the ground causing it to explode, now that he was concealed Shino used the opportunity to hide behind the nearest tree to catch his breath,

"Come out come out wherever you are!" Tenten's voice came from the trees and Shino felt himself get irritated when he realized he couldn't tell where she was. He once again forcefully calmed himself down, it would not be prudent for him to engage Sakura in Taijutsu again since he would be at a disadvantage with his injuries. especially his bleeding hand. Shino realized it was time to take it to the next level.

He stepped out of the trees causing Sakura to snap her head in his direction along with a Kunai being thrown from the trees, Shino did not even turn his head or even acknowledge the airborne piece of metal,

He just caught it with his left hand.

"I have been careless with you girls today...but no longer."Shino dropped the Kunai and put his arms out"I admire your strategy, to use your superior numbers to systematically destroy me in both close combat and long range distances, is truly a simple yet magnificent plan but..." Sakura could hear a feint buzzing sound coming from the boy, and a sense of dread ran through her body.

"That is where you are wrong..." The Aburame's voice took on a deeper and more menacing tone.

"You do not outnumber me..." Bugs suddenly exploded from his body in steady streams, heading towards her at blazing speeds. "I outnumber you!"

Sakura gasped and put her hands up is a feeble defense but it was no use, the stream of bugs merged into one larger and collided with her with the force of a train. Sakura flew back when it hit and she began tumbling on the ground over and over again like a flat rock skipping over a lake. The pink haired kunoichi finally came to a stop, her form unmoving. Shino stared at her for a second looking for any sign of movement, when he saw her try to stand up again his bugs circled back around looking to land another blow to finish once and for all. The Pink haired girl didn't even notice the bugs coming at her, she seemed to be focused solely on getting back up.

Her teeth were grinding together, her eyes were shut tightly, and her legs were shaking terribly, but she seemed determined to get back up. Shino contemplated stopping his bugs, she was clearly in no condition to continue plus he had to focus on the Weapons user who was still hidden. Shino decided that he would finish it quickly and let his bugs continue their path, when they finally came close enough to make impact a figure stepped in front of it.

Tenten.

The weapons girl used a sword to block the stream of bugs causing it to separate to the sides like water going around a stone. "You are not hurting her!, your have to get though me if you wanna do that!"

"Very well..." Shino said simply, as if on cue to bugs slowed to stop and began to converge around her.

"You did well, your efforts were not in vain, you even managed to injure me."

Tenten swung her sword in all directions trying to stave off the bugs, but it was no use it was like cutting liquid, it just couldn't be done.

"You show potential for some truly amazing teamwork, and you are quick to come to each others aid, a quality that is regarded high in shinobi of Konoha."

The bugs slowly started to consume her, crawling up her arms and legs, Tenten dropped her sword.

"You did well but in the end I am afraid victory is mine."

All that could be heard was Tenten's muffled scream as the bugs covered her entirely, draining her chakra.

Training ground 24 fell silent

Shino called his bugs back to him and without a word began to walk away.

"W-wait."

Shino looked over his shoulder and was stunned to see Sakura in a standing position while breathing heavily, but Shino could tell she was far too tired to even walk.

but that's exactly what she was doing.

She was taking slow unsteady steps towards him. She looked seconds away from collapsing but she trudged onwards.

"Kurenai-Sensei!" He yelled knowing she could hear him "Its over..."

Kurenai appeared in a swirl of leaves in front of Sakura and only then did the pink hair kunoichi finally succumb to exhaustion and collapse into the Red eyed Jonin's arms.

Shino began to walk away from the scene he heard Kurenai call out for him.

"Shino!"

The bug boy stopped to show he was listening but didn't face her. "Thank you"

He nodded one last time before continuing his trek.

His destination?

The Hospital.

* * *

><p>believe it or not i really did try with the fight scenes, i know they suck but now its time for you guys to tell me how to improve or tell me what was wrong with at least,<p>

Next time on Retrievers Retribution: The boys test out their strength with a few more bandits before finally arriving at Takeshi Village where they find that well...they aren't exactly welcomed, and somewhere near the village dark forces gather together, their sinister plans coming to light, and also...a wedding?


	11. Arrival of the Fittest

**Hi everybody, another chapter. and I noticed i got thirty reviews...heheheehAAHAHAHAHAHHA! that was my goal, i wanted to reach 30 reviews by the 20th chapter but i got it much earlier =). it makes me feel good. I want to give a big BIG thank you to to wlkwos who fixed this chapter up big time for me. when i fixed the mistakes it was like the story finally made more sense ( even to myself ) and i even learned a few things...well alot of things.**

**Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto**

LOL the foxes real name is Kurama! How awesome is that!

* * *

><p><span>Retriever's Retribution <span>

This was thrilling.

He really had never felt anything like it.

Fighting and dominating completely.

The Retrievers had managed to run into a group of bandits once again except this time there were many more of them.

Many more.

Unlike their earlier encounter this group seemed to be slightly more competent, though they were still no match for the Retrievers. Naruto chuckled as his fist made contact with the abdomen of a large rotund man, causing him to collapse to the ground. The blonde-haired boy didn't have time to relish his victory as another one came rushing from behind him. Naruto spun quickly just in time to grab his attacker's wrist. He noticed the man was carrying a crude-looking cleaver. Naruto wagged his finger mockingly at him as the man struggled to escape from his grip, and then snapped the man's wrist in one swift motion.

The bandit dropped the weapon with a scream of pain. Naruto flinched a little at the feel of breaking bone but shook it off just as a sword swept down. Naruto formed a hand sign as he backed away from the bandit's wild swings.

"**Kage Bunshin No Justsu**!" He yelled and five clones appeared beside him. With a quick mental command the clones swarmed his attacker and began to perform one of his original techniques. The clones began to kick the man into the air as they called out his name.

"U"

"Zu"

"Ma"

"Ki!"

Naruto jumped from the back of one of his clones to follow the bandit's airborne form. The blonde boy screamed as he landed the finishing move, an axe kick to the back of the neck.

"Naruto Rendan!"

The man was sent flying back down to hit the ground with extreme force, knocking him out cold. Naruto landed lightly besides the unconscious body and mentally counted his number of victims. He smirked and turned to his friends who were engaged in their own bouts. "That's 4!"

Neji huffed when he heard the call. At the same time he gracefully danced around the slash of a sword to deliver a palm strike to a bandit's solar plexus. "I have already dealt with six enemies, Naruto!" he smirked as three more surrounded him and he immediately began to rotate and pour chakra out simultaneously.

"**Hakkeishou Kaiten!**" he screamed, his rotating shield of chakra blowing the men away.

Naruto felt a vein pop in his head when he saw Neji's smug face. "Make that nine..."

The blonde boy grunted and rushed for the nearest bandit with his clones following, now completely determined to best his Hyuuga teammate. Naruto saw that the nearest ones were surrounding Kiba and Akamaru and sped off to that position. When he reached them Naruto jumped and landed in the middle of the circle to press his back against the Inuzuka.

"Hey, Mutt. How you holding up?"

"Hey, Idiot. I'm doing just fine!"

Naruto and Kiba were getting ready for the large group to attack when a loud voice rang out.

"DUCK!"

Naruto and Kiba immediately recognized the owner of the voice and pressed their bodies flat against the ground right before a large and meaty hand swept across the area blowing away the enemies that surrounded them.

Naruto and Kiba got up and cheered as Chouji bowed playfully. "Thank you! Thank you!"

Chouji stopped, then laughed at them. "Now I'm in the lead, suckers!" He ran off.

Naruto and Kiba stopped cheering and gave each other a look.

A split second later they both separated, looking for their own enemies.

The blonde boy hastily created a few clones to aid him as he searched the area for enemies. The task didn't take long as there were so many of them. The Genin didn't waste a second and jumped into the fray, his clones following his lead. Using one of his clones, Naruto jumped off its back to land a flying knee kick to the closest bandit. His knee met the man's nose with a satisfying cracking sound and he flew back with a stream of blood flowing from his nose. Naruto didn't have time to enjoy his victory as he was quickly surrounded by the bandit's comrades, all of them with their weapons raised.

Naruto scowled as he dodged a small dagger. Why the hell did bandits always have to carry something sharp and pointy! The blonde boy took out a kunai and began parrying the multitude of strikes that were coming at him from every direction. His eyes widened when the group suddenly separated to make way for a large man carrying a buster sword. Naruto raised his kunai reflexively to block.

The giant buster sword met Naruto's short kunai with a loud clang that made sparks fly out from their weapons. The boy found himself being pushed back as the man tried to overpower him in their deadlock. With the man's added weight and height advantage Naruto quickly realized this was a losing battle. He pushed off from the standoff and just as he did the kunai in his hand fell apart.

"Great, that was a new one too…" Naruto said, looking at the broken weapon with disappointment.

"Hey kid, you got bigger problems!" the bandit growled.

Naruto smiled at him. "So do you…"

The large man didn't have time to reply before his ankle was gripped and he was pulled down into the ground till only his head remained. Naruto chuckled as the man began to throw curses at him and struggle to get out of the jutsu.

"You'll pay for that, shortie!" one of the many other bandits in the area yelled.

Naruto stopped laughing and looked at them. He had honestly forgotten they were there.

"Hey, Ass munchers."

They all turned to see Chouji Both his arms were enlarged considerably with Kiba on one shoulder and Akamaru in the form of Kiba on the other.

"It's time for a little combination attack."

Chouji grabbed both Kibas' legs and began spinning round and round. Once he had built up enough speed the Akimichi let them both go and they immediately transformed into spinning drills.

"**Gatsuga**!"

With Chouji's strong arms augmenting it, Kiba's and Akamaru's attack could result in only one thing.

Devastation.

Naruto leaped for cover as the two started to tear through the ranks like as though they were butter, causing men to fly in every direction with screams of pain. The twin drills kept going and going, blowing away dozens of men. Trees and earth were torn apart as the area was completely razed by the Inuzuka combo.

When it was over Naruto peeked his head out from behind a rock and slowly approached Chouji.

"Chouji."

"What?"

"Ass munchers?... Seriously?"

* * *

><p>"So we all agree that we lost count, right?" Naruto said.<p>

Kiba snorted. "Yeah, sure, Naruto, you only say that cause you know that I would win if we kept count."

Naruto crossed his arms and said nothing.

"Yeah, right, Kiba, don't act like that whole thing was just you. It was my idea to combine our attacks in the first place, so it counts towards both our numbers, and that would mean I would win hands down." Chouji laughed when Kiba flipped him off and his small canine barked at him.

"It would only be natural that Chouji would be able to incapacitate more enemies than us, since his jutsus have far more range and are made to take out multiple people at once," Neji said. He was standing on a tree nearby, his byakugan activated, scanning the area in case there were any more enemies.

Chouji nodded at Neji's explanation but felt a little irritated that he was able to explain away the reason he won in a way that made him feel like he didn't win at all. "Yeah ... okay ... I guess."

"But in the end no one won, right!" Naruto cut in loudly.

They all rolled their eyes at him.

They would have continued their conversation to see who won when the voice of a bandit cut through the air. "Fuck you, Samurai! We ain't tellin you nothin!" The loud declaration was followed by what sounded like a harsh punch to the face.

A short distance away the four Retrievers could see their leader holding several bandits in shadow binds. They were all standing exactly like Shikamaru, slouched and relaxed. The sight was actually sort of funny. Pacing around them was the tall form of the Samurai Kenji as he asked them questions. This had been going on for a while and each time it would only result In Kenji getting frustrated and hitting them in the face then bellowing more questions at them. After that it would start all over again in a redundant cycle.

The four Retrievers watched for at least a good thirty minutes as the Samurai interrogated them before Kenji gave a nod to Shikamaru who nodded in return. Naruto and the rest of the Retrievers excluding Chouji watched confused as Shikamaru shifted his hand sign. A shadowy hand slithered up all of the bandits' necks.

Naruto whistled in admiration when they all dropped like flies. "Whoa, that was pretty cool. Didn't know old Shika had a move like that. I've never seen him use it before even when we were training together."

"It seems he has increased his repertoire. It augments a jutsu he already has a firm grasp on." Neji smirked. "It seems our leader has been getting very strong."

"Yeah, Shikamaru said that he needed a move that can take out a person after they were been caught in his shadow bind, so his dad taught him that."

"Well, we've got a move none of you have seen yet, and it is pretty awesome if I do say so myself," Kiba boasted, his dog's excited barking doing nothing to help his already inflated ego.

"Let me guess," Neji broke in. "It's one of your drills but much bigger."

Kiba was quiet for a second "... No!"

Naruto burst out laughing at him.

"Shut up!"

Shikamaru, who had joined them, was looking confused as to why two of his Teamates were rolling on the ground, one laughing and one obviously angry. He was about to tell them to stop when Kenji stepped up behind him.

"Shinobi, we are moving out!"

Kiba and Naruto stopped and got up, the others doing the same. The blonde boy took his place besides the carriage as Kentaro started to move it. And just like that they were on their way again.

Naruto and the rest of the Retrievers continued their journey towards Takeshi village in peace. Things were quiet now as they returned to the routine of vigilantly guarding the carriage that held the ever silent purple-haired princess herself. Luckily for the blonde-haired ninja Kenji had said that they would arrive by nightfall and Naruto could barely hold his excitement as the sun slowly began to disappear over the horizon. Soon they would be in Takeshi village, the mission would finally be underway and the horrible protection part of the mission would be over with.

Suddenly Kenji's voice broke through the quiet. "Shinobi, we have almost arrived at the village."

Kiba smirked. "Finally! We've been waiting for this for a long time. We're going to kick some ass, right, boy?" Kiba said, addressing his canine companion who barked exitedly.

"Can we get some food when we get there? I'm hungry…" Chouji pleaded, clutching his stomach.

"Don't worry, Chouji. When we get there you can eat all you want. Consider it a reward," Shikamaru said.

Chouji's whole face lit up. "Hehe, thanks, Shikamaru."

"First thing I'm going to do is take a nap. Hopefully our beds will be comfortable." Shikamaru yawned and stretched.

Naruto shook his head at the Nara as he practically bounced on his feet. "How could you even think about sleeping? I can barely stand still. When we get there I'm going to find the best place to get in some light training."

Shikamaru snorted. "By 'light training' you mean working yourself till you pass out from exhaustion. No thanks, I'll pass.

"I would be in favor of some light training as well, but we should take Shikamaru's example and rest when we get there," Neji said.

Naruto groaned and started to pout. "Awww, fine!"

Conversation stopped after that as it quickly became dark. The group started to pick up their pace, not wanting to travel in the dark for too long. Ambushes were far easier to execute and far more difficult to pinpoint in the dark. Luckily they had Neji's Byakugan and Kiba's nose and would be able to spot somebody coming from a distance.

"We are nearly there," Kenji said.

They were walking up a hill now and Naruto could tell that if the sun was out, the hill would be a beautiful spectacle. He stopped admiring the area and continued to walk upwards till they could see the other side.

"There it is. Takeshi village." Kenji pointed towards the distance where the blonde shinobi could barely make out a large wooden gate.

One thing Naruto and probably the rest of the Retrievers noticed was that the village was pitch black. Usually a village would be filled with light at this time, but this village looked it had gone completely to sleep.

"Whoa, can't see a thing. Is there some kind of blackout or something?" Kiba asked as the Retrievers followed Kenji down the hill.

The large Samurai ignored Kiba's question and made his way towards the village gates. The Inuzuka was about to shout at the Samurai when Kentaro's voice answered him.

"A curfew was put into a place a little while ago."

"This early? Is this organization considered that much of a threat?" Neji asked.

"No, but the Head Samurai didn't want to take any chances. Even though we haven't lost any lives yet the attacks are getting more straightforward and frequent and he thinks it's just a matter of time," Kentaro responded.

There was no more conversation after that as they continued to walk. When the Retrievers finally reached the gate they took the time to observe it. The gate itself was very large. Just by looking at it they could tell it was roughly half the size of Konoha's great gate. The wood on it however looked old and worn. Naruto was certain that a weak jutsu could topple it. On either side of the gate there were guard towers and the blonde could clearly make out two figures on each. Samurais, he realized. He could make out their forms but saw that they had the same armor as Kenji and had bulky headgear in their head. The two sentries were standing completely still holding bladed lances in their hands.

"_Weird, I thought Samurai's only used swords_," Naruto thought to himself.

Kenji stopped and began addressing the two up top in a commanding voice. "We are Harima Kentaro and Aso Kenji of the Queen's Royal guard. We are in the company of the princess, and we request entrance."

As soon as the guards heard the word 'princess' there was a scramble of movement. The guards started shouted things to someone or someones over the other side. The Retrievers couldn't make out what was being said from the other side and could only make out muffled grunts and the occasional curse followed by the sound of a barking dog.

After some waiting time a small window was opened and the group met the wrinkled eyes of an unknown person.

"Sendo, let us in. The princess has been traveling for days. She is weary," Aso stated.

"Hold your horses, Kenji," the man said. By the sound of his voice, Naruto guessed that he was quite old. "First you haul ass with your princess and that friend of yours, and completely ditch your responsibilities. You know you were suppose to marry three couples the whole time you were gone," Sendo continued.

The Retrievers could tell that the samurai was getting irritated.

"Fine, I'll handle a wedding tommorow!"

"You do weddings?" Chouji interupted.

"What are you, a priest or something?" Kiba added

"Odd that a samurai would have such responsibilities ..." Neji commented.

Sendo didn't seem to take notice of them or Kenji's frustrated face. "And they specifically asked for you too, they were such a lovely couple ... polite too. Now you're telling me to open the gate for ya. Why the hell should I do that?" the old man sneered.

"As I told you before it was a mission assigned to me by the Queen, so let us in!" Kenji shouted.

Naruto was getting increasingly amused. Who would've thought that Kenji would lose his cool so easily with this old man?

"Mission, there's that word again. 'Mission'! Back in my day boy Samurais were traveling testing their skills against the strongest warriors, Samurai and shinobi alike, and they would do it with honor and the Bushido code, but now we're stuck behind goddamn villages wiping asses and babysitting little girls." Sendo began to ramble soon after that, delving into past war stories and adding snide insults towards Kenji along the way. Naruto and several of the Retrievers found themselves laughing as veins started to pop on the tall samurai's face. That however caused some attention to shift to the Retrievers.

"Hey, Kenji, what are you doing picking up stra-" noticed the headbands and his tone did a complete turn around. "Shinobi…and so young too…"

Naruto could easily detect malice in the man's voice.

"I'll let you in, shinobi, but keep your hands to yourself, got me?"

Each of the Retrievers gave nods of understanding as loud clicks were heard from the other side. After what seemed like hours the large gate opened wide.

The group made their way in and Naruto was able to spot the old man. He was short and his face was covered in wrinkles. He had a large cloak covering his entire form, in one hand there was a torch that illuminated the area slightly and in the other was a leash which was holding a rather large brown dog.

The canine began to bark and growl at them as they walked by while its owner glared at them. As Naruto walked by he could barely hear what the man whispered to him.

"Watch yourselves…shinobi."

Naruto turned and the old man slowly wobbled out of sight.

.

"Who was that guy? I got a freaky vibe from him," Naruto whispered to Kiba who was closest to him.

"Yeah, me too, and did you see that evil eye he gave us? It's like we did something to him," Kiba whispered back.

"I doubt it was personal. He is a very old person. Maybe he holds a grudge that stems from a previous Ninja war," Neji suggested.

Chouji stepped up besides them. He looked worried, his eyes darting across the completely dark area. "Guys, is it just me or do you get the feeling that we're being watched?

"No, it's not just you, Chouji." Shikamaru was also glancing around the area. The buildings looked empty and the windows were closed. The pitch black darkness and the deafening quiet made the hairs on the back of Shikamaru's neck stand up and his muscles tense. "I've had that feeling ever since we entered the village."

After some time the Retrievers had to say goodbye to Kentaro as he had needed to lead the carriage carrying the princess back to the royal house. They were now following the tall samurai wanting to see where they were staying. Kenji had said that it was hotel so naturally their expectations were high. Those expectations were quickly crushed however when they arrived at the horror that was to be their new home.

They were speechless.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...And what the hell is this suppose to be!" Naruto asked as his eye twitched.

"This is the Takeshi hotel. It is where you will be staying... Is it not to your liking, shinobi?" Kenji had an infuriating smirk on his face

"This is a piece of crap!" Naruto shouted, not bothering to remain quiet any longer as he voiced his outrage. The blonde had every right to be, for the monstrosity in front of them could hardly be called a hotel anymore. It was two stories and very small, and even in the dark the signs of rotting and decay could easily be recognized. The small metal gate they were standing in front of was rusted and weak, and the building itself had holes in various places along with cracks. The most noticeable thing was the roof.

Half of it was gone!

"Are you serious? This isn't a hotel! Hotels are suppose to have maids and a help desk and one of those chocolate mints on your pillows. This is not a hotel at all!" Kiba said, his voiced laced with anger and disappointment. Akamaru whimpered sadly on his head.

Chouji groaned. "Aww, man, that means we got nothing to eat tonight."

Kenji didn't respond to any of their complaints and that resulted in raising Kiba's and Naruto's ire even further, but before the two could outright pounce on the man Shikamaru interrupted.

"Thank you for the accommodation, Kenji. We appreciate it. Now if you don't mind, we're going to get some rest. I'm assuming someone will tell us tomorrow what we're going to be doing?"

Kenji seemed put off by Shikamaru's acceptance to the situation "... Oh, umm, yes! A tour guide will come by tomorrow morning to get you familiar with the village since you will be staying here for an extended period of time."

"All right. Good, we will see you tomorrow, Kenji." Shikamaru gave him a quick wave before opening the rusted gate and shoving the other boys through it. "Come on, guys, inside. Let's just get some rest and figure this out tomorrow."

It was no surprise that the inside turned out to be just as bad as the exterior. There was mold growing on the walls and cobwebs littered the furniture. The Retrievers found the stairs and made their way up, each of them finding a room to stay and make theirs.

Naruto dropped his backpack on the floor and plopped himself on the bed. He immediately started coughing as a layer of dust rose from the sheets.

"Damn it, this sucks!" he said as his coughing subsided. He could still he hear movement from the other rooms nearby, a clear sign that the others were still awake. By the sound of it they probably weren't going to be able to get any decent rest anytime soon. Between the dirty beds, horrible smell, moldy walls, and half a ceiling Naruto couldn't blame them.

The Uzumaki sighed and rolled over trying to get comfortable. He closed his eyes, hoping that tomorrow would bring better fortune.

* * *

><p>Sasuke Uchiha scowled as he took a large bite out of an apple. The Sharingan user was perched on tree with one leg dangling off the side lazily. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat from the small workout he had just done. He felt a small bit of impatience as he watched his new master stare off into the distance with a smile on his face. He had been following the snake summoner for a while, completely oblivious to where they were headed. He had asked the Sannin a few times but relented when he realized he was not going to receive any information. Now they were waiting at the edge of a densely populated forest near a village he had never of.<p>

The Uchiha didn't question what they were waiting for, knowing all would be explained in due time. A little ahead of him stood his master. The man's slit-like eyes were focused intently on objects in the distance. for the life of him Sasuke couldn't figure out why.

Ruins.

Old stones and intricate carvings, along with statues of what seemed to be long forgotten deities. Sasuke would've have guessed that they had stumbled upon a site of an old civilization. Even then Sasuke still couldn't see why this place had gotten the interest of the Sannin, for in the little time he had spent with the man he had already figured out that Orochimaru did not do unnecessary things nor did he pursue things that couldn't be useful to him in some shape or form.

But ruins? Sasuke couldn't see one reason why Orochimaru would waste his time here and interrupt his training. He had said something about eternal life some time ago but Sasuke was not interested in living forever. The only reason he would even think about obtaining eternal life would be in case he failed to kill Itachi.

But he was not going to fail.

"Do you want to hear a story?" Orochimaru asked suddenly, snapping Sasuke out of his thoughts.

The Uchiha raised an eyebrow at the odd question "… What?"

Orochimaru turned to face him. "Do you want to hear a story?"

"No," Sasuke answered immediately.

Orochimaru smiled. "Good. Listen closely, Sasuke-chan"

"Don't call me that."

Orochimaru ignored him. "Let's see. It all started a few decades ago when I was still a Konoha Nin. As you know I had strong love for research and ... kukuku ... experiments. During that time I had taken an interest in an old explorer."

"Is this going somewhere?"

Once again he was ignored. "I never knew his name. None of the research I compiled ever gave it away. I quite admire that actually, so far in his own secrecy that even writing his name down was something he would not do. Anyways, I studied him throughout the years every now and then when I would get the chance. After all I couldn't let my own personal interests get in the way of my much grander goals. He was quite an interesting man, Sasuke, you would have liked him. Though, his ideals resembled Sarutobi's much too closely for my liking. Despite all that he witnessed incredible things. He witnessed far away lands, lost cities, civilizations, came into contact with people of different cultures and backgrounds!" Orochimaru whipped his head around to look at Sasuke who was a tiny bit freaked out from the Sannin's sudden movement.

"Imagine it, Sasuke-chan, the things he witnessed and learned. It's an exhilarating thought, isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever..." Sasuke muttered, not being able to sum up the energy to care much for anything right now, let alone some ridiculous story. Orochimaru turned back to look in the distance, his voice losing some of its previous excitement.

"But some years ago I had found an interesting specimen in my travels, a child. I wanted to study and use him for some of my experiments. So of course I slaughtered his family. Unfortunately I wasn't as subtle as I thought I was and ended up alerting some guards, so needless to say I ended up needing to kill every man woman and child. Isn't it amusing how people beg for their lives and grovel pathetically in their last moments?" He stopped to laugh sinisterly.

"Anyways, I never considered myself a lucky one but in one of the houses I found a journal, and it turned out to be the of the very same man. But this time it was different. He didn't talk about lost civilizations or lands of immeasurable wealth, no, he spoke of Fire country, of the Elemental Nations." A strong breeze past through making their clothes billow in the wind.

The Snake Sannin's face contorted into an evil smile that looked like it could split his face in two. "I was ecstatic! I had questioned several times if what he wrote was true, but there it was. Proof! Staring directly back at me. But none of that mattered to what he wrote next. It was as if it was fate."

Sasuke snorted at the word 'fate'.

"He spoke of immortality...well, in a manner of speaking."

"Oh, so that's where this is going. I should have known. So you're here because this place contains something that gives you immortality?"

"Tsk, tsk, Sasuke-chan," Orochimaru chided, wagging his index finger at Sasuke, whose face bulged with veins at being called 'Sasuke-chan' for about the millionth time that day. "I am no simpleton. Immortality is something I have well within my grasp. What I'm here for is something that when he found, he hid. Something he said and I quote: 'This monstrosity, this embodiment of evil, this can not be seen by _Their _eyes. This cannot be seen even when the guardian of the day sleeps and the sentinel of the night rises to take his place. If they find it, the very heavens will burn.' "

"Fascinating..." Sasuke said, watching a nearby squirrel scurry up a tree holding a nut.

Orochimaru took out a scroll and applied some chakra to it. A puff of smoke later a small leather-bound journal appeared and was thrown to the Uchiha who caught it swiftly.

"And what's this?" he asked, observing it.

"It's the journal, Sasuke-chan. It contains everything I need to find what he hid."

"Don't call me th-"

"Turn towards the end, and look for yourself."

Sasuke opened it to the end and when he did he noticed the strange markings that were scattered on the page. "What is this? It looks like some strange language..."

"Very good. Now look over there, Sasuke-chan." Orochimaru pointed to large stone monument in the distance.

Sasuke glared at him and looked. The Uchiha used his Sharingan to see further and noticed the same strange markings on the side of it. Sasuke looked back at the book then the stone head just to make sure. "...Yeah, so what, this doesn't prove anything," Sasuke said.

"Why, Sasuke-chan, can't you see? That is our starting point, it is where this game will begin. Now turn back some pages."

Sasuke did as he was told. As he scrolled he could see a bunch of detailed descriptions of pillars and walls along with signs explaining what they were. There was also several mechanisms and how they functioned on there. There was only one problem though. They all looked half finished.

"That is his first journal, the first half of the puzzle. From my research it seems like he made another one that has the other half of the clues. And with the two combined I can finally find what he called 'the Power of life itself.'" Orochimaru exploded into that insane cackling that Sasuke found very irritating.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "How do you even know this is all true? You could be following ramblings and made up crap by some crazy guy."

"My, my, aren't you the skeptic, Sasuke-chan?" The Snake Sannin said, laughing.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that!" Sasuke took a deep breath trying to calm down. " I am not being a skeptic, I am being realistic. This could all be a load of crap for all we know and I am not wasting my time with this when I can be trai-"

Suddenly everything seemed to go blurry as a wave of unbelievable blood lust washed over him. Sasuke found himself unable to even stand He managed to look up to see Orochimaru with a disturbing smile on his face staring down at him. This was a cruel reminded of where they stood and the power difference between them.

"But Sasuke-chan, who said you had a choice?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth as he felt frustration and rage bubble inside him. He didn't say anything in return, knowing that staying silent would be the best option right about now. after what felt like hours under the Snake Sannin's overwhelming killing intent, it stopped abruptly and Sasuke let out a sigh of relief.

"They're here, Orochimaru-sama," a voice Sasuke recognized as Kabuto's said. The silver-haired medic had just appeared in a swirl of leaves in a kneeling position beside Orochimaru.

"Very good, Kabuto. You've done we-" The Snake Sannin stopped as he began to cough deeply. "Damn this useless body," he cursed while wiping his mouth.

"Orochimaru-sama, you are still getting used to this new body. Don't overexert yourself."

That was when the rumbling started.

Sasuke, still drained from the effects of the Sannin's bloodlust, stood shakily on the tree he was in to see what the source of the thunderous noise was. What he saw made his eyes go wide with disbelief.

Men. What seemed to be several hundreds of them were starting to appear in all different directions. They appeared out of the trees, the stones, the carvings, even from underground. They were all wearing dirty looking clothing and carrying all sorts of weapons in their hands.

Standing before him was literally an army.

"W-what is is this?" Sasuke asked, stunned.

"The help," Orochimaru replied.

"The help? The help! You never said that it was this serious! It looks like you're about to go to war!" Sasuke cried.

"Oh Sasuke-chan ... we are."

* * *

><p>Long black cloak.<p>

Red clouds.

Crossed arms.

Ants, they resembled ants from up here.

Rippling purple eyes gazed at his target from afar, his form levitating above them.

In time, they would feel his judgment. They would know true pain.

The leader of Akatsuki and wielder of the Rinnegan observed Orochimaru and his student silently.

Watching.

Waiting.

Back in Takeshi village the Retrievers slept soundly, unaware of the monsters lurking nearby.

* * *

><p><strong>There you go people most of the big dawgs have arrived, Pain is here, But why hasn't he struck yet. Why has orochimaru gathered an army? why is takeshi village getting stranger by the minute? and why do the retriever's always end up getting the short end of the stick? Ahh so many questions. hopefully i can surprise people, one of my main goals of this story is to do something different with the naruto universe. i want the reader to think i am taking you one way then leave you stunned when i flip it on you and end up taking another direction.( nothing ridiculous though) next chapter will be up as soon as possible. and once again Thank you wlkwos ( you are a freaking genius).<strong>

**and you never know we might even some Jiraiya next chapter...or maybe even some rock lee...or a little of both =)...no promises though ...-_-**


	12. New Faces

Umm hi guys, its me...hi! oh lord its been a year! i know its terrible and there is nothing i can do to ever erase what ive done, i really feel terrible. you guys probably forgot everything that even happened lol, but to the loyal fans still reading, i give you another chapter, and yes i will make good on my promise to never abandon this fic. =) enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto

* * *

><p>It was a strange feeling he realized, waking up somewhere that was not his apartment, it was a feeling that he guessed he would never get used to no matter how long he stayed a ninja. The blonde Uzumaki shook his head and rubbed his body, still weak and lethargic from his slumber.<p>

"Hey, Naruto, wake your ass up, we got food!" came Kiba's unnecessarily loud voice.

"I'm coming Dog breath!" he responded, knowing it would irk the Inuzuka.

Naruto proceeded to begin his daily routine, however, he soon found it impossible as he lacked the necessary materials. He had none of his favorite things like his Mad Cow whole milk and he refused to use one of the showers in this place as each of the bathrooms he tried were so disgusting they were unfit for human purposes.

Adorning his trademark orange jumpsuit Naruto walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to see his comrades already into the swing of things. The most amazing part was that it looked clean. Shikamaru seemed to realized his unvoiced question.

"We woke up a few hours earlier and decided to clean up the place," the Nara explained.

Kiba who was sitting at a small table near the kitchen eating yet another hamburger glared at their leader.

"I told him to wait for you to wake up so you could help with your clones but nooo! We had to get started as soon as possible," the Inuzuka said in a high pitched voice as he tried to mock the Genius.

Shikamaru just shrugged before opening the fridge and tossing something to Chouji who caught it and started to munch on whatever it was eagerly.

"Where is Neji?" Naruto asked plopping himself near Chouji who was caressing his stomach in satisfaction.

"Out back, there's some kind of backyard back there, I'm guessing he's using it for training."

Naruto nodded and thanked the genius before running off to find his Hyuuga teammate.

It didn't take long to find him as the backyard was quite large. When he arrived Neji was in the middle of a grass field much like a training area back in Konoha, except for the fact that this one was much more wild looking, the grass was longer and more uneven and flowers of various colors made up a good part of it. It was obvious to the blonde Shinobi that unlike the training areas back home, no one had tended to this place for quite awhile.

Naruto stepped through the grass to get closer to Neji who was siting in a lotus position and breathing at a slow and steady pace. He swung his hand back and forth in front of his face,

"Neji, hey Neji! You okay?"

Naruto snapped fingers twice in front of Neji, still, no response.

Naruto frowned before shrugging and sitting besides the Hyuuga boy in the same position as him. He was going to ask Neji for another spar but he guessed it could wait awhile, and anyways since Neji was doing it, it must be a good form of training too right?

* * *

><p>Naruto had no idea how long he had stayed out there but when he opened his eyes he had noticed the position of the sun and had guessed it was around noon, maybe even later than that.<p>

"Meditating."

Naruto snapped his head to the side at the sound of the unexpected voice.

Neji continued, his eyes still closed and his breathing still steady and even.

"What you did just now, it was called meditating."

Naruto scratched his head, Jiraiya had talked about meditation sometimes but every time he did, Naruto felt like it went way over his head. Things like sense of self and oneness and all that.

"I am honestly surprised by how well you grasped it, and in such short amount of time. I thought that someone with your personality would never be able to do something like this, you continue to astound me Naruto Uzumaki."

"Umm...thanks?" Naruto said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Let us go back inside, I think its time for us to discuss things."

Naruto yawned and got up to follow the Hyuuga back inside.

* * *

><p>"I suggest that some of us stay here and continue the cleaning process," Shikamaru said. The Retrievers were all sitting around the table, deciding that it would be best communicate their plans like this.<p>

"I vote Naruto stay and clean with his clones!" Kiba hollered.

"I vote dog breath stays here and cleans the bathrooms with his tongue!" Naruto said just as loudly.

"No one is cleaning anything with their tongues..." Shikamaru droned.

"Sounds fun!" Chouji laughed.

besides him, Neji's face contorted in discuss, "No it does not!"

Chouji frowned and turned to Shikamaru "Shikamaru, he's yelling again."

Shikamaru sighed. "Neji stop yelling at Chouji..."

"I am not yelling!"

"And tell him to stop making up words!" Kiba added.

"I do not make up words! Just because you do not understand the meaning does not mean the word has no meaning whatsoever."

"Well...I didn't understand it either." Naruto said.

"Me neither...," Chouji chimed in.

Neji clenched his fist, feeling the strong urge to punch all three of them.

Resigning himself to having to play peacemaker for his team Shikamaru spoke up in a demanding voice,

"Alright, everyone be quiet!"

The room instantly became silent.

"We need to get started. So first, we need to make sure everyone knows what they are doing."

Shikamaru pointed first at the blonde, " Naruto, you will stay here and use your clones to speed up the cleaning process. As of now that is what is going to be the most time consuming activity, and your clones will cut that time by a considerate amount.

The blonde wanted to protest but stopped the instant he saw Shikamaru's face, instead he crossed his arms and began pouting while muttering curses and things about dog breath.

Shikamaru looked at his best friend, "Chouji and I are going to get us some foo-"

"Wait, you have money?" Naruto interrupted.

Shikamaru nodded, "Yes, the Princess put a considerable portion of money into supporting us for our two month stay, so don't worry about those things, the Hokage told me that Takeshi village would provide everything we might need."

"How about a roof..." Kiba muttered.

"Except that."

Shikamaru cleared his throat and continued, "Another thing is that I don't really like the way the village seems to regard shinobi, so Chouji and I are going to maintain a transformation, and I strongly suggest you all do the same when you are walking around town."

Neji nodded in agreement,"That is a sound plan, Shikamaru. The few people who are from Takeshi village and have interacted with us all seem to be hostile towards shinobi, except for Harima-san of course."

"Yes, that's exactly why, only when we can conclude that this is not a view point that is shared by the majority of the village we remain cautious and transform at all times.

Naruto's eyes became slits and his expression became fox like as he formed a thought, "We just have to hope we don't get caught though, it would look really suspicious if we were seen going out of the house as different people all the time."

"Yes it would, but we're only going to use it for activities like this until we can tell if we need the disguises or not."

"We're being really careful aren't we Shikamaru?"Chouji said.

"True, but Asuma-Sensei told me once that you can plan and strategize all you want, but sometimes you got to go with your gut."

"My gut is telling me this village is bad news," Chouji moaned, clutching his stomach, "and that I'm still hungry.

"Anyways, Neji, Kiba, I want you two to monitor the house. Neji you take the front and Kiba you take the back, I want you to switch regularly, you can decided the schedules amongst yourselves."

They both nodded.

After receiving their tasks they had all gone their separate ways. Naruto, of course, had to stay behind and begin the cleaning process which he quickly found out was no easy task, sure he was use to cleaning up his apartment, but this was an entirely different matter. they're things growing out of the wall that he didn't even think Shikamaru could identify. He had done it though, despite all the vomit inducing things that he had seen, like the brown slosh that was in the toilets and the giant spider that killed one of his clones. He shivered at the memory of its long, hairy legs.

A few hours later, with the help of his clones, the task was finally finished, though there was still the matter of the rather large hole in the ceiling above them, but he figured there was no point worrying about it if he couldn't fix it.

"Hey Naruto we're ba...Wow" Shikamaru who had stepped in with Chouji carrying several large bags stopped to observe the place approvingly.

"Nice work Naruto."

Naruto's eyes narrowed with anger, he pointed at Shikamaru as if he was accusing him of something "Yeah, you better be grateful! Do you know the things I've seen, the things I've do-"

"I got you ramen-"

Naruto did a complete 180 and smiled luminously, "You're welcome Shikamaru, it was nothing I couldn't handle."

Naruto jumped the bag that contained the noodles as Kiba and Neji materialized to help with the groceries.

Neji looked to Shikamaru as began to put things away "Did you notice anything peculiar while you were going through the village?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "Nothing out of the ordinary, just some basic observations. It's a lot bigger than we first thought, and since we weren't in disguise nobody recognized us and gave us trouble." Neji and the rest of the Retrievers accepted the answer and continued to pack things away. Kiba and Naruto went through their usual routine as Neji berated both of them, while Chouji opened some chips he had bought and ate away happily, Shikamaru yawned and was strongly considering taking a nap when there was small knock.

Everything stopped and the Retrievers all exchanged looks.

Shikamaru sighed when all those looks rounded on him.

"Fine, ill get it..."

Shikamaru made his way to the door and opened it slowly. Behind it stood a small petite woman dressed in a Samurai outfit, she was about as tall as he was with short black hair. She gave a cry a fright when she saw him, immediately going into a bow and stuttering out an introduction.

"K-kimiko Ayanashi, here to escort you around the village s-shinobi-dono's"

Shikamaru stared at her, was she frightened of him? Of them? Shikamaru made a mental note of this and called the others.

"Hey, she's here! Lets get a move on, Naruto, finish your ramen later!"

"There is no later when it comes to ramen!"

Naruto was about to continue his protest, but his Hyuuga teammate snuck up behind the blonde and snatched the small cup from him and threw it in the trash.

That did it.

Shikamaru face-palmed as Neji and Naruto began to fight, tearing up the kitchen in the process .

"Can you give us a minute?" Shikamaru asked.

She nodded and he closed the door as he went back inside.

Things must have escalated because after a few short minutes of screaming, the short samurai girl outside screeched when a large hand burst through the wall beside her sending a black haired boy and what looked like a small dog along with it, a few seconds later a pale boy's body came flying from a window crashing right next to her, amazingly the boy just stood up and rushed back in through the front door.

The screaming got louder.

She almost fainted right then and there, these shinobi were scary!

* * *

><p>"A-and this our final stop, the Samurai Headquarters, this is where all samurai related activities take place, f-from our duties to our basic training."<p>

Shikamaru nodded as the shaking samurai girl in front of him pointed at a large building with a red roof with the Kanji Samurai written on the front. The rest of the Retrievers were following close behind him surprisingly not arguing at all for the time being. Shikamaru guessed that they had gotten all their aggression out from the earlier incident.

"Hey lady, you okay!?" Naruto asked the girl, she squeaked and nodded hastily. Naruto gave her a weird look before shrugging and ignoring her.

"Kenji-San is w-waiting for your arrival inside," she said, her voice high pitched.

Before any of the Retrievers could even give her a word of thanks she was off, leaving only a trail of dust behind her.

The Retrievers stared after her, sweat-dropping.

"She Probably had somewhere to be..." Kiba suggested weakly.

Shikamaru lead the way and began to walk towards the entrance of the building "Whatever, lets go."

slowly they made their way inside, the place resembled a Dojo as they looked around, wooden training dummies were scattered about the place. The Retrievers could tell right away that there were large amounts of rooms in the building. in the middle there was a wooden spiraling staircase that led up several floors, and unfortunately coming down that staircase was a Samurai they were very familiar with.

"Good Afternoon, shinobi. Did you enjoy your accommodations?"

"It was lovely..." Shikamaru drawled, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Apparently Naruto had not noticed said sarcasm and glared at Shikamaru like he was crazy.

"What the hell are you talking about!? the place smelled and it was broken down, do you know the crap I went thr-"

Neji bopped him on the head to make him stop, "Quiet."

Naruto pouted and rubbed his head.

Kenji ignored the little scene and led them into one of the many rooms, as soon as they stepped in they froze.

Men, women, samurai everywhere.

Naruto gulped and began to sweat profusely with all the eyes that were focused on them, not to mention the clear hostility that radiated from their stares.

"S-Shikamaru, I don't like this." Chouji whined fearfully.

"It's alright Chouji, just bare with it."

Kiba who was beside the Akimichi scowled and met their stares with one of equal malice, his canine companion following his lead with rapid and aggressive yips. Neji crossed his arms and put on a stoic mask, not the least phased by the eyes that were on him and the Retrievers.

Kenji seemed pleased with their reactions, "Welcome to Central intelligence!"

* * *

><p>Sakura groaned as she woke up that morning, a sense of fear filling her as she thought about what was going to happen today.<p>

Training with Tsunade-Shishou.

All of which included reading medical book after medical book and not to mention the hellish physical training she would have to partake in, she really didn't want to do the boulder exercise again. On top of her already cramped and crazy schedule she had Kurenai's training on top of that. She was starting to regret doing all of this in the first place. She reluctantly got out of bed and started her morning routine, once she was showered and dress Sakura kissed her mom and dad goodbye and went straight for the Hokage tower via rooftop.

As she traveled though Konoha, her mind couldn't help but think about all the events that happened recently. The team consisting of herself, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, and Kurenai that had formed mainly due to Ino's impulsiveness, and the training exercise that in her opinion had gone horribly wrong, especially since Ino would not stop vowing revenge on Shino the very moment she woke up and noticed all the bandages on her face. Sakura herself had sustained injuries but most of it was fixed in a few minutes, the only thing she had really needed had been rest in order to fill her chakra reserves once again.

The pink haired girl hopped down and made her way up the tower to start her daily training with Tsunade, as she entered the office Sakura was surprised see Kurenai-sensei talking to the Hokage.

"Kurenai-Sensei, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was just clarifying your training schedule, Sakura." Kurenai answered with a smile.

Sakura looked confused for a second before it dawned on her. She had not made the connection that making the choice to join Kurenai-Sensei's team might effect her training schedule with Tsunade.

"I-is there something wrong?" she asked a little afraid of the answer, she didn't want to give up either opportunity to strengthen herself.

Tsunade seemed to read her emotions and spoke "Don't worry about it, everything is fine Sakura, your training with me is now every other day three times a week, all other times is with Kurenai."

Sakura felt a sense of relief wash over, it seemed that things were finally looking up for her.

"Well, Sakura, since you're here we might as well get started." Tsunade stood and grinned an evil grin.

Sakura felt the relief vanish, replaced by a cold sense of dread.

* * *

><p>"Ooh I hope he shows his face again. I want to at least get a punch in, I want to feel my fist against his face." The weapons summoner, also known as Tenten, growled to herself as she followed her sensei. The girl walking beside her agreeing with her readily.<p>

Ino smacked her closed fist into her palm, imagining it to be the bug user's face "For what he did to me, ill break every bone in his body and bash his head in so hard, that he'll never get a girlfriend," she scoffed, "Not that he probably has a chance of getting one with the way he looks."

Kurenai who was walking ahead, winced at the barb, but said nothing.

Tenten and Ino continued to exchange ideas of how they would do bodily harm to one Aburame Shino with gleaming smiles on their faces, their words becoming bloodier and bloodier.

Hinata who was also present tried and failed to defend the actions of her teammates as each time she attempted to she was interrupted by their boisterous yells of their newest fantasy that involved mutilating her teammate.

Sakura Haruno was far behind the group, dragging herself along, her body was sore and ached all over, The Hokage had not been lenient on her ( like she ever is ) her training had started immediately, and each exercise got more hellish than the last, she was seriously starting to develop a fear of boulders.

All together the group walked on to their training ground. The only Jonin in the group smiled to herself. The girls had recovered well after the training exercise, for a brief while she had worried that Shino beating them as badly as he did would affect their confidence or to to cause them to change their minds about the team, but it wasn't so, the girls seemed to have a new drive to get stronger, after getting a painful reminder of how limited they were. it wasn't all good however as she feared that she had essentially ruined any possible friendship that Shino could have had with them.

They hated the bug boy now.

"I would feed his intestines to dogs then burn-"

Kurenai sweat-dropped and laughed nervously to herself

they _really_ hatedhim.

After a couple more minutes of walking, the group of female ninja decided to take the trees , it hadn't gone unnoticed that Sakura was lagging behind and Kurenai knew why. Being a medic was not easy, the knowledge and chakra control required were extraordinary, and add to the fact that she was being trained by Tsunade was enough reason for Kurenai to conclude that Sakura was far from 100%. The red eyed Jonin made a mental note to herself to take it easy on her.

* * *

><p>First it was surprise, then it had been a bit of fear, and now it was just plain old anger. As Naruto's eyes looked from left to right and up and down, samurais completely surrounded his vision and were openly glaring at his team, and that was why he was currently trying to reign his anger in. who the hell did these guys think they were? They were the ones who hired them and when they show up to help? they get treated like crap! first it was Kenji and that uptight princess, then it was that hotel that had half a ceiling! And now it was these assholes looking at him like it was personal.<p>

Well enough was enough!

"What the hell are you looking at!" Naruto suddenly shouted to the nearest Samurai, who returned his heated stare with one of his own.

"Scum, that is wha-aaaah!" The samurai screamed, and began shaking his arm trying to get the small white dog that was currently biting down on it off.

Naruto began to laugh as Kiba yelled his approval, "Good boy Akamaru!"

"Nara!" came Kenji's deep and irritated voice, "Control your men!"

"Control yours..." Shikamaru replied, a slight edge in his voice.

The tension in the room increased after that, both leaders of their respective sides silently sizing each other up.

"Kenji-san" came a nervous voice, "We have to get to work."

over the tall samurai's shoulder was a sight for sore eyes, Harima Kentarou had a hand placed on Kenji's shoulder while giving the Retrievers a smile letting them know that he was supporting them.

Kenji stared at his subordinate, surprised that he was trying to stop him, Kentarou had never been an assertive person, "Kentarou..."

Kenji nodded and turned his attention back to business, the samurai went to the center of the room and stepped on a tile that was on the floor. Whatever he had pressed had activated, as not a second later the room began to shake. Kenji backed away from where he was allowing a small hole to open, slowly a structure took form, it was simple in its design, not too large or too small, and rectangular in shape.

Kenji beckoned the Retrievers over. Shikamaru, however, motioned for them to stay while approached Kenji alone.

Bright colors and shaped is what greeted them, it didn't take long to deduce that it was an extremely detailed map that showed the village and the surrounding region, the jagged gray protruding ones made the faraway mountains and the smooth green rising areas were the hills, the bodies of water were signified by flat moving surfaces of blue. What immediately jumped out on the map were the large X marks on certain areas near the village.

"Are these the areas that were attacked?" Shikamaru asked Kenji.

"Yes, those were the locations where caravans were raided."

Shikamaru studied the map looking for any noticeable patterns in their movements. the red marks seemed to be spread around randomly revealing nothing obvious. He needed more information.

"At around what time did the attacks take place?"

"The time of attacks varied, at some points they attacked during the day," Kenji answered.

Shikamaru was grateful for the information, it was clear that whoever these people were they were desperate.

"What did they steal?"

"..."

Shikamaru looked at the samurai when he gave no answer.

"Nothing...they stole nothing." Kenji closed his eyes and took a deep breath." Currently we have no idea what their goal is. When the caravans are raided things are broken and left a mess but otherwise remain there."

Shikamaru scratched his head as his mind began to race. Right now there was only two things clear to him. The bandits were desperate and they were desperate for something in particular, this wasn't just bandits raiding caravans to loot it, there was a larger goal involved.

Shikamaru decided that it as best that he discussed this information with the rest of the Retrievers. The shadow user quickly walked over to his team who had (much to his shock) stayed silent and manage not to murder each other or the surrounding samurai.

"Nothing! We brought our ass out here because some bandits were stealing air!" Kiba hissed in outrage, speaking low enough so the surrounding people could not hear the conversation.

"Calm down, Kiba. This bodes well for us, now we can clearly see that these bandits are searching for something," Neji cut in.

"I don't like Mysteries..." Chouji sighed and looked at his hands wondering why he didn't have chips with him.

Naruto wholeheartedly agreed with his chubby friend "Me neither. I guess this is where the scouting part of the mission is." Naruto said

Shikamaru nodded and motioned for them to come closer, the Retrievers listened closely as their leader's voice, "We'll need to cover a large area if we want to learn anything about these bandit's movements. So Naruto, I'm going to need clones."

"How much?"

"Lots."

Naruto smirked "I can do that."

Shikamaru began to explain the rest of his plan to his team, when he finished the Retrievers broke off and he approached Kenji "Okay, here is what we're going to need..."

The Retrievers felt nothing but satisfaction when the samurai's eyes slowly began to widen with disbelief.

* * *

><p>Rock Lee breathed slowly in and out in rhythm, his fist making contact with a wooden dummy repeatedly, the self proclaimed Konoha's green beast let himself get lost in the familiar act and not allow himself to dwell on other things.<p>

It wasn't working.

He was dwelling! And he hated it!

Rock Lee was not a man who dwelled on things, he did not dwell on the fact that he had lost in the preliminary rounds of the Chuunin exams, he just used it as a motivation to train harder and make it next year.

His punches became fast and fiercer.

He did not dwell on the fact that his teammate had left his Genin squad to find his own way on a new team, he stood behind Neji and cheered him on in his quest to strengthen himself.

His hands were a blur of movement as small pieces of wood began to chip away.

And he especially did not dwell on the behaviors of his teammates, especially his female teammate, something that Gai-sensei warned brings lots of problems.

The top part of the dummy flew off in a shower of wood as his final punch knocked it clean off.

In short, Tenten had been acting weird and it was bugging him.

It had started awhile ago when Neji began to spend less time time with the team. With their teammates sudden call to help on a retrieval mission followed by his stay in the hospital and then his sudden transfer to another team had resulted in him and her spending lots of time together.

Unfortunately it was not time well spent.

Tenten constantly complained and raged about Neji's choice to move to another team, and on top off that she had blamed the lost to Temari of the sand to her lack of weapon variety ( something that he didn't agree with at all!) and had proceeded to stock up on a variety of new weapons to add on to her already massive arsenal. She had brought a scythe to train with! And it had 6 blades!

For awhile he had wondered what to do, his teammate seemed completely out of sorts and he felt it was his responsibility to help her through whatever tough time she was going through, in his innocent ignorance Lee had once again sought the guidance of his sensei.

Flashback

"Gai-Sensei, I seek your guidance and wisdom!" Lee said respectfully as he bowed.

"What is it Lee!? Speak to me my student!" Gai replied loudly.

Lee began to squirm in his place, having no idea how to start this discussion.

"I have a problem...Gai-sensei"

Gai seemed to notice his discomfort and calmed down a bit "What is it Lee?"

"It is with Tenten, she has been out of sorts lately, I was wondering what I could do to help her!" Lee finished with a salute.

While Lee was explaining himself Gai was a perfect image of understanding and calm.

That was on the outside.

On the inside, however, Gai was stunned.

He hadn't noticed anything!

_'hmmm...maybe just maybe Lee has started to notice Tenten a little more. Maybe that is the real problem'_

With his mind made up, Gai grasped Lee's shoulders roughly and gave him an affectionate look. "Aaahh Lee, you've finally realized what else your female teammate can offer you!"

"...Huh?"

Gai gazed towards the sky, failing to notice his student's confusion. "There comes a time in every young ninja's life where he begins to think of other things that can make him happy, things outside the life of a ninja!

"Wha...?"

"It was only a matter of time, Lee, before your youthful flames sought out someone to share your burning passion with!"

Lee's thick eyebrows rose significantly as a blush covered his face. "b-b-b-burning passion!?"

"Now go, Lee! Shower her heart with love!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" Lee screamed at the top of his lungs.

Lee, completely confused as to what had just transpired went to the nearest training ground to look for his teammate, all the while his thoughts were trying to figure out the best way to share his burning passion with Tenten.

Gai completely unaware to what he had just done took to the tree's to head towards Konoha.

He didn't want to be late, he was meeting Kakashi for smoothies!

End of Flashback

He had looked for her all day and unfortunately had not been able to find her, he had decided instead to get in some light training, and wait to shower her with his...burning passion at their next team meeting.

Lee was not keen on sharing his umm...burning passion with Tenten, considering his heart belonged to Sakura-San, but if Gai-Sensei said it had to be done then he would do it.

He was going to confess to Tenten!

* * *

><p>Sarutobi Asuma had faced many things in his career as a shinobi, when he was young he had seen the wrath and horror of the Kyuubi, and later down his life he had spent many years protecting the Daimyou as one of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve. He had seen it all and been through it all, Missing nin, rogue mercenaries, bandits, you name it. In that time he had done lots of things he wasn't proud of, some to protect his home, and some to protect the Daimyou. Some of those things he would take to his grave, and some made him feel like sometimes he was a terrible person.<p>

Unfortunately there was an irrational part of his mind that said that no matter how badly he felt about taking the life of another person or how much the memories of death plagued him at night, it was nothing compared to upsetting Kurenai.

So when she had knocked on his apartment door yesterday night and fixed him with the most disappointed stare he had ever seen directed at him, his brain had decided that there and then that this was the thing that made him truly feel like the worst, most despicable scum of all the elemental nations.

Flashback

Sarutobi Asuma gulped as sweat poured down his face,she was just standing there and staring him down, she didn't even look angry or upset just disappointed, and for some reason he wished she was mad at him, Mad he could deal with, but disappointment? That was a whole new ball game.

"Umm...are you oka-"

"Come." was all she she said before she turned around and began walking without looking back.

Asuma scrambled to get something on and rushed out to follow her.

He walked behind her silently, allowing her to lead the way, there was no words spoken, the aura she was giving off demanded so.

They entered a small sushi shop he recognized as her favorite.

This was bad...

"Sit," she practically ordered him.

He obediently did so.

Unsurprisingly so she ordered her favorite sushi all without looking at him, he ordered some Tea. They sat in silence once again, waiting for their orders. When it arrived he sipped his tea while she slowly ate her raw fish.

He really wished she would say something, the quiet was killing him. He had known her ever since they were in the academy together and it had never been this awkward, hell even when they first started to date in secret it had never been this awkward.

"I expected more from you."

Oh thank lord! She said something!...wait what?

"What?"

"I said, I expected more from you."

"What do you mean?" he was utterly confused.

"Ino, I'm talking about Ino, have you forgotten that you still have a student to take care of!"

"Of course I do, where is this even coming from?"

She shook her head at him, "It doesn't matter , I just feel that you should be informed that a great portion of her time is now going to be spent being trained by me."

Asuma felt himself getting angry "Okay, enough of this! What the hell are you talking about!?" his voice raising slightly.

Kurenai was not one to back down, so she returned his anger with some of her own "You know exactly what I'm talking about! I'm talking about her lack of direction that you have failed to provide her for the last few weeks. She's been lost Asuma, shes lost her team and shes lost her friends, and you, someone that should have been there for her and given her guidance, ignored her!"

Asuma stayed silent, no matter how hard he wanted to protest, he knew it was true, after Shikamaru and Chouji left, he had been at a complete lost as to what to do with the final remaining member of his team, he had given up rather quickly if he was being honest with himself. Eventually he had just started to hope that the problem would fix itself.

Asuma took a deep breath and pulled out a smoke, with some nicotine running through his body he became a little more relaxed. " I tried, Kurenai, I honestly did, but at some point I just had no idea what to do, from the very moment they became a team, I knew what I had to do with those three. Teamwork. It was all about teamwork, getting them to use their abilities with each other perfectly just like their parents. It was a complete shock when Shikamaru and Chouji left, I just assumed they would always be together, learn together, and become as great as their parents."

Kurenai softened a little bit as she listened to him.

"I think everyone thought the same..."

Asuma sighed "I have to do right by her don't I?"

she smiled at him " Yes, and I know just how you can do it. I now own you, whatever I say goes."

"Kurenai, we're already dating..."

"..."

"Right, go on."

"Whenever I ask you to do something to help train these girls you are to do it without question."

"Kurenai, I think I'm missing something here. Girls?"

"Oh yes, you see yesterday was a very interesting day..."

End of Flashback

Kurenai had informed of everything that had happened recently, the girls teaming up, the training exercise. He had been stunned when Kurenai had told him it was Ino's Idea to start a team in the first place, she was the one to take initiative while he as her teacher hadn't even been able to help her, hell Kurenai told him that they had an argument about getting trained with the Hokage!

He really needed to have more faith in his student.

Though he wished he had Chouji back just for the fact that he was somehow capable of listening to Ino drone on for hours about the most ridiculous subjects, he didn't know how the big guy did it! With both Shikamaru and him gone, he was left with the tedious task of making conversation with her, and boy could she talk for a long time...like hours.

He shouldn't feel bad about that should he? not wanting to listen to Ino talk?

"Ahh, I'm a terrible person..."

* * *

><p>the asuma Kurenai conversation at first was going to be like really funny and then i realize as i was writing that this was an issue that need to have a bit more seriousness to it, i even gave you guys a dose of lee, and before anyone asks Lee's part in the story is not simply going to be comedy or be heavily tenten Lee based or anything like that, this is my way of inserting lee into the story in a very...unexpected way.<p>

You guys know the routine, review if you can, and especially review to tell me my mistakes, and if you cant review...then whatever.


End file.
